Barbie case: 1st witness called

2005-01-26 13:18

Pretoria - The State called its first witness on Wednesday morning in the trial of Pretoria advocates Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo on an array of charges involving sexual violations of women and girls.

Captain Carel Cornelius, the original investigating officer in the case, was sworn in in the Pretoria High Court just before the tea break.

Cornelius was previously attached to the child protection unit and was involved in the pair's arrest at their Raslouw, Pretoria home in December 2002.

Prior to Cornelius being called to the stand, Judge Essop Patel gave a ruling prohibiting the media from naming any of the couple's alleged victims due to testify against them.

It was important to protect victims of sexual offences and to spare them public humiliation and embarrassment the judge said.

This would help ensure that future witnesses were willing to come forward.

Three weeks have been set down for the trial, which began on Tuesday with Visser and Prinsloo pleading not guilty.

Visser, dubbed "Advocate Barbie" for an apparent likeness to the busty, blonde plastic doll, faces 15 charges and her boyfriend 16.

They are out on bail of R4 000 each.

Numerous charges

The pair stands accused of raping a child and a woman on different occasions - in each case allegedly drugging their victim first.

There are three charges of soliciting a 15-year-old girl to commit indecent acts on different occasions. In the alternative, they are charged with exposing themselves to the girl and/or performing sexual acts in front of her and/or showing her pornographic material.

The couple is also charged with paying another minor to perform a variety of sexual acts - including having intercourse with Prinsloo.

There are four counts of indecent assault - two of them involving an 11-year-old girl and the others two different women.

It is alleged they had shown the child pornographic films, exposed themselves to her, and had sexual intercourse and performed other sexual acts in front of her. They also allegedly forced her to walk around naked at their home.

The State alleges the couple committed fraud by pretending to be married for the purposes of obtaining temporary supervision over minors from a children's home, in order to abuse them.

Other charges include one of possessing child pornography, two of manufacturing such materials, and one of possessing 12.2 grams of dagga.

Prinsloo is furthermore charged with assaulting a complainant in one of the indecent assault charges - a former employee of the pair.

Written statement

The trial was adjourned shortly before 15:00 when the defence objected to the State submitting a written statement by Cornelius.

Defence lawyers also insisted on being given copies of all the pictures in the red album.

Patel warned that he would not tolerate frivolous objections to derail the proceedings.

"Any counsel of merit and substance would not only look at the case from the two sides of the coin, but also at all the circumstances on the circumference of the coin.

"I will accommodate counsel, but will not allow counsel to abuse the court on the basis of technical objections," he said.

The trial is to continue on Thursday morning.

- SAPA