Barbie-case postponed
2005-01-24 14:10
Pretoria - The trial of Pretoria advocates Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo on 16 charges involving alleged sexual violations of women and girls, was delayed yet again in the Pretoria High Court on Monday.
Judge Essop Patel, who had a full court schedule on Monday, postponed the matter to Tuesday morning. The parties would then meet in the judge's chambers at the Palace of Justice to "determine a strategy as to how to proceed".
Last May, the matter was postponed to Monday (today) due to problems with legal representation.
The sweethearts are out on R4 000 bail each. They were first arrested in December 2002.
Charges against the couple include three 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.
They are also charged with four counts of indecent assault - two of them involving an 11-year-old girl and the others two different women.
Two rape charges are listed - one involving a minor and the other a woman.
Possessed and manufactured child pornography
Also on the charge sheet are counts of possessing and manufacturing child pornography, and possessing dagga. All the charges are against both the advocates, except for one of assault against Prinsloo alone.
This related to the alleged assault of an employee of the pair, who was allegedly also threatened with death and indecently propositioned.
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 over weekends.
Charges against the pair were withdrawn in July 2003 after several delays in court proceedings. But the State re-opened the matter and they were re-arrested a few days later.
Visser came into the public eye after a failed bid to become a pop star and because of her surgically enhanced bosom. She has been nicknamed "Barbie" after the blonde, busty plastic doll.
- SAPA