Barbie guilty of sex crimes

2009-10-07 13:21

Pretoria - Former advocate Cezanne Visser, or "Advocate Barbie", was on Wednesday convicted on 11 of the 14 sex charges against her.

North Gauteng High Court Acting Judge Chris Eksteen found that Visser had been a willing partner in the sexual abuse of three young girls from a children's home and three young women.

He found her guilty of defrauding a children's home by pretending that she was married in order to convince them to let children spend time with her and her then lover Dirk Prinsloo.

She was further found guilty on three charges of soliciting a 15-year-old girl to commit indecent acts and indecently assaulting an 11-year-old and a 14-year-old girl.

The judge also convicted her of being a beneficiary to the indecent assault of a 20-year-old woman and indecently assaulting two other young women, as well as the possession and manufacturing of child pornography.

The judge found that Visser had willingly associated herself with and actively participated in the sexual activities at Prinsloo's house.
She had embraced the new life Prinsloo had offered her and had accepted the enlargement of her breasts, tattoos and piercings in her private parts so that she could become an international model.

Rejected offers of help

After her arrest, she told a friend she was loyal to Prinsloo and he gave her what no other man could.

She had pretended to children's homes that she was married and had taken the initiative to approach the homes to get young girls for the purpose of sexual abuse.

Her actions were throughout aimed at the sexual abuse of children and women for the gratification of her own and Prinsloo's sexual needs.

She had rejected all offers of help and had out of her own money bought tight-fitting clothes for one young girl, offered to have her waxed and have her private parts waxed; demonstrated the use of a vibrator to a young girl and had sex in front of children and women to encourage them to commit indecent acts, the judge found.

He rejected Visser's claims that she had been Prinsloo's pawn and had no will of her own when she committed the deeds.

Eksteen found that she wanted to hide behind Prinsloo's conduct for convenience sake to justify her own conduct and deeds and said it would be interesting to hear what Prinsloo said about being made the scapegoat.

He said if she had no will of her own, she would not have had fierce arguments with Prinsloo; apologised to one of the young girls; rejected all offers of help to get away from him and made false statements under oath to help him.

The trial was postponed to December 8 to allow the State and defence to obtain further expert reports.

Visser's bail of R5 000 was extended.

- SAPA