Cézanne Visser 'struggling'
2010-11-04 08:20
Jeanne-Marié Versluis, Beeld
Pretoria – Two of Cézanne Visser’s victims are claiming R600 000 each from her, as compensation for the indecent acts she committed with them.
Visser was served with the court papers on Wednesday.
The 33-year-old former advocate has been serving a seven-year prison sentence in the Pretoria Central prison since May 17.
She was found guilty of 11 of the 14 charges she faced due to a series of indecent acts with three girls from children’s homes and three other young women.
At the time of the incidents in 2002, the claimants were teenagers.
One of the claimants (now 24), an insurance clerk, states in court papers that Visser on February 22 2002 exposed her to pornographic literature and films, “intimate behaviour or therapy” performed on Visser’s genitals, and Visser’s naked body.
The woman also alleges Visser touched the genitals of Dirk Prinsloo (her former lover and co-accused, who is currently serving a prison term for a robbery in Belarus) in her presence.
Shocked and traumatised
The claimant says Visser encouraged her to be “sexually uninhibited”.
She also claims Visser said Prinsloo was her (Visser’s) “god”.
According to her, this behaviour left her depressed, shocked and traumatised, and she sustained “genuine permanent or significant psychological injury”.
The other claimant, who will soon be 19, is unemployed.
Her court papers state Visser molested her genitals on March 15 2002.
Visser “violated the claimant’s body by shaving her body hair”.
The claimant says she suffered psychological strain because her “child-like naiveté, obedience to and respect for adults” was abused.
She was told “not to breathe a word to anyone” about these incidents.
Require treatment
Both claimants say they still require medical and other, related treatment.
Visser’s stepfather, Prof Johann Lemmer, said on Tuesday the “so-called terrible suffering” of the two claimants “is completely exaggerated”.
And besides, he feels they will only “be traumatising themselves even further” with the civil case.
Lemmer said he was speaking in his capacity as an expert advisor for the defence in Visser’s trial.
“I’m not speaking on behalf of her or her mother (Susan Lemmer).
He labelled the compensation claims “absolutely ridiculous, to say the least”.
“The whole story of what really happened didn’t come out in court. Victim impact reports were not submitted on behalf of the complainants.
“She (Visser) is paying the price for Dirk Prinsloo’s actions. She is not doing well. She’s struggling,” Lemmer said.
