The North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday heard sex crimes-accused Cezanne Visser could have transferred her fear of her father onto her former lover Dirk Prinsloo.

Visser is on trial after she and Prinsloo allegedly sexually abused several women and girls.

He is being held in Belarus after allegedly trying to rob a bank there last week.

Social worker Hendrien Nortje told the court Visser's upbringing could explain how she fell under Prinsloo's spell.

The court heard Visser's parents had a tumultuous relationship and that she did everything she could to please them.

Nortje said this behavioural pattern was repeated after Visser met Prinsloo.

She testified she could see no emotion in Visser's eyes in the sexually explicit photographs Prinsloo had taken.

The defence is trying to prove that the former advocate suffered from so-called 'Battered Woman Syndrome' and that she had followed Prinsloo's orders because she had no mind of her own.