Advocate Cezanne Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, was forced to call her lover, Advocate Dirk Prinsloo, her ”sex god”, the Pretoria High Court heard on Thursday.
Prinsloo was a narcissist and a control freak, and became abusive when he did not get his way, his former personal assistant told the court.
Prinsloo, who fled the country last month and is still on the run, is accused with Visser of indecent assault, soliciting minors to commit indecent acts and the manufacture and possession of child pornography.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
The personal assistant, whose identity is being protected, testified that she worked for Prinsloo for five weeks towards the end of 2001.
However, she resigned amid discomfort over an ”inappropriate” birthday gift from Prinsloo and Visser.
”He gave me black, see-through, very skimpy lingerie.
”When I asked Cezanne about it, she said they felt it was something that would make me feel more feminine and good about myself.
”I was amused, but also a little bit shocked, because I did not think it was appropriate for the time-span I’d spent with them. I felt uncomfortable about the gift,” she said.
After the couple’s arrest for alleged child molestation, she asked Visser why she was throwing away her life by staying with Prinsloo.
”She felt she could not leave him. She said he was the best thing that happened to her and that it was the best sex she ever had in her life,” she told the court.
Although she had expressed her willingness to make a character statement for Prinsloo at his request in January last year, she was shocked and contacted the prosecution when Visser brought her a statement drawn up by Prinsloo to sign.
She was to declare that she had worked for him for six months and had been happy doing so as he was ”self assured, effective, firm but fair and one of a few people whose word was actually his honour”.
She was further to declare that she had never seen any pornography at his house and that he had never made any sexual advances towards her.
She could not sign it because she felt the whole statement was a lie, the woman testified.
She had only worked for him for five weeks before she left as a result of the gift, and had seen stacks of pornographic magazines in Prinsloo’s office, bar and cupboard.
”In my opinion, he was a narcissist. He wanted to be in control of everyone and everything and threw tantrums and became abusive when he could not.
”He often had me in tears,” he said.
It was also not true that freelancers had free access to his computers, as he could only be seen on appointment and his computer was password protected, she told the court.
Under cross-examination, she added that Prinsloo had controlled Visser, requiring her to call him her sex god.
He had demanded respect of people, was commanding and liked submission. He did not like to be questioned.
The mother of a teenage witness known as Miss F, who was allegedly drugged and indecently assaulted by the couple, testified that she allowed her daughter to spend the night of her 14th birthday with them.
This, despite rumours that they had pornography and that other children had ”not looked well” after visiting them.
”I confronted Cezanne with the rumours and she assured me it was just rumours and not the truth.
”She said there were pornographic magazines in the house, but it was limited to their bedroom. She completely convinced me that there was nothing wrong,” the mother said.
However, the phone was put down on her several times during calls to Visser, made when her daughter was not back, as promised, early the next morning.
The girl was very tired and slept the whole day after she was brought back.
Her daughter ran away with a friend after school the next day. Although she never said anything about the visit, her mother obtained information from another source, which eventually led to a police investigation, the court heard. — Sapa