The judge in the trial of former advocate Cezanne Visser — Visser is also known as ”Advocate Barbie” — on Tuesday started the arduous task of summing up evidence in the lengthy trial.
Visser went on trial with her former lover, Dirk Prinsloo, four years ago, but was left to face the music alone when he absconded.
Her trial had to start afresh before Acting Judge Chris Eksteen when the former trial judge died in 2006.
Visser has pleaded not guilty to 14 charges of fraud, soliciting minors to commit indecent acts, indecent assault, rape, possession and manufacturing child pornography, and the possession of dagga.
She claimed Prinsloo — who is now languishing in a Belarus jail and is being investigated for an attempted bank robbery and sex crimes there — controlled her to such an extent that she had no will of her own.
Visser admitted fetching three young girls from a children’s home and house of safety, but denied being aware that Prinsloo wanted to use the children for his sexual gratification.
She admitted having sex with Prinsloo in front of some of the victims, but flatly denied fondling or sexually abusing the children and young adult woman or making sexual suggestions to them.
She claimed she was only following Prinsloo’s orders and did not think about what she was doing or the consequences of her actions.
Judge Eksteen summed up the evidence of numerous state witnesses, including the three young schoolgirls and three young women who were allegedly sexually abused by Visser and Prinsloo.
The victims, who all testified behind closed doors, gave graphic details of their ordeal.
One young girl was so traumatised after being confronted with porn and Visser’s intimate piercings that she went to her bedroom and prayed.
An 11-year-old girl, who had to watch Visser and Prinsloo re-enacting scenes from a porn video for over an hour, was so traumatised that she had to receive medical treatment when a nervous skin condition flared up.
A third victim, who was 14 years old at the time, testified how she was drugged and woke up confused and without her bikini bottom the next morning. She ran away from home, became addicted to drugs and fell into prostitution after the incident, and was now HIV-positive.
Visser admitted seeing Prinsloo naked on top of the girl performing some kind of sex act, but denied that he raped her.
Two of the adult victims were only 20 years old and both had worked for Prinsloo for only a few days when they were first sexually abused and later falsely accused of theft.
One of them was forced to have oral sex with Prinsloo while Visser was elsewhere.
Visser admitted that she later made a false statement that the young woman was a willing partner and had stolen money from Prinsloo.
Another young employee testified that Visser had suggested a threesome with Prinsloo — a claim Visser denied — and even had oral sex with Prinsloo in front of her while he gave her instructions about her work.
A young woman who worked for a photo shop where Prinsloo often had his pornographic photographs developed testified that she had been drugged.
She could not remember exactly what had happened to her, but remembered Prinsloo kissing her and Visser fondling her breasts and indecently assaulting her.
The judge also started summing up Visser’s lengthy evidence, in which she gave graphic descriptions of the violent and strange nature of her sexual relationship with Prinsloo, who once had violent sex with her in a chapel while forcing her to reject God.
She claimed she would have done anything to please Prinsloo — to the point of committing murder if he had asked her to do so. She had started believing she was above the law.
Today, she was a different person who could not explain how she could have done the things she did.
Judgment continues. — Sapa