Pretoria advocate pair Cezanne Visser and Dirk Prinsloo, accused of an array of sex crimes, appear to have had e-mail correspondence with websites dealing in child sex and bestiality, the Pretoria High Court heard on Tuesday.
A folder marked ”naughty mails” on their personal computer, seized during the couple’s arrest, contained 177 sex- and pornography-related e-mail messages, former police computer expert Danny Myburgh testified.
Some of the e-mails, at least one addressed to a ”Teen Beast”, dealt with problems the couple were apparently experiencing in gaining access to certain sites.
The password they used was ”Poplap”, Myburgh told the court.
He also testified that the computer had been used on more than one occasion to visit websites apparently containing child pornography.
Many of the sites’ titles contained the words ”Lolita”, ”latina” or ”teen” — all three usually associated with child-pornography sites.
Websites accessed from the couple’s computer included ”Lolita’s Sex Portal”, ”Best Links to Real Free Photos”, ”Bestiality Live”, ”Banned Illegal Porn Site” and ”Cannabise’s Pamela Anderson-Lee Website”.
The principal user registered on the computer was ”Dirk”.
Myburgh further testified about two apparent child-pornography pictures found on the computer’s hard drive.
They were saved in a folder called ”My Pictures” under the name ”Lol1” and ”Lol2” — an apparent abbreviation for Lolita.
The pictures appeared to have been downloaded from the internet, he said.
Prinsloo’s advocate, Piet Coetzee, suggested that the two pictures could have been planted.
He also pointed out that a person using the word ”Lolita” in an internet search is not necessarily out to get child pornography.
Furthermore, Coetzee said, many websites ”entice” their visitors with promises of ”teen” images, but give a guarantee once accessed that all the images are of adult women.
Myburgh said police also seized a stiffy disk at the couple’s home that contained 11 possible child-pornography images.
He explained that a police investigator who examined the disk himself rather than hand it over to computer experts, as required, had not contaminated the evidence.
While the action was not recommended, Myburgh said he had determined that the data on the disk had not been altered.
Other disks found at the house contained naked pictures of Prinsloo and several women.
Myburgh told the court that investigations involving internet child pornography are very difficult.
Police are seldom able to prove that websites visited by suspects did indeed contain child pornography as the sites usually disappear after a while.
He could not, therefore, state that the sites accessed from the couple’s computer did contain child pornography, ”but in my experience, it is possible they could have”.
Prinsloo and Visser are standing trial on a variety of charges related to alleged sexual violations of women and girls.
Visser, dubbed ”Advocate Barbie” for an apparent likeness to the blonde, busty plastic doll, faces 15 charges and Prinsloo 16.
The charge sheet lists two counts of rape, four of indecent assault, three of enticing a minor to commit indecent acts, one each of fraud, sexual exploitation of a minor and possessing child pornography, two of manufacturing such material, and one of possessing dagga.
Four of their alleged victims were minors — one was 11 at the time.
Prinsloo faces an additional charge of assaulting one of the complainants.
The couple is out on bail of R4 000 each. — Sapa