Cezanne Visser, also known as "Advocate Barbie", is seen outside the Pretoria High Court. Sapa
Barbie's 'sad eyes' used
Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:00
Former Pretoria advocate Cezanne Visser closed her defence
against sex-related charges on Thursday.
Acting High Court Judge Chris Eksteen postponed Visser's trial
on 14 counts involving minor girls and adult women to August 28,
when final argument would be presented.
He said judgment would probably be ready by the beginning of the
court's last term in October.
Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, had denied guilt on all
of the charges.
She insisted she could not be held accountable for her actions
because of her lover Dirk Prinsloo's coercive control over her.
Her trial was separated from that of Prinsloo after he absconded
while on a court-sanctioned business trip to Russia several years
ago.
He was arrested in the Republic of Belarus last week after
allegedly trying to rob a bank, and was awaiting trial in that
country.
Proceedings for his extradition to South Africa were pending.
Visser earlier told the court in graphic detail of her and
Prinsloo's sexual life which included having sex with him in front
of a young girl from a children's home.
She said she never took her own decisions while she was with
Prinsloo and it felt as if he had taken out her brain and replaced
it with his own.
She only started feeling human again when she resumed contact
with her mother, Visser testified.
Psychologist Jonathan Scholtz diagnosed Visser as suffering from
battered woman syndrome and depression and said she needed
corrective psychotherapy.
He described Prinsloo as a sexual sadist and paedophile who had
subjected Visser to severe sexual abuse and achieved total control
over her life through fear.
Psychiatric social worker Hendrien Nortje said Visser came from
an unstable background, where she feared her father and obeyed
orders without question.
Nortje said on Thursday she had found Prinsloo's pornographic
photos of Visser "emotionally shocking". They were vastly different
from the person she had come to know while Visser was under
observation at a psychiatric hospital.
She said Visser's eyes had been sad during her period of
observation, but her eyes were dead in the photos and she looked
like someone who was not in control, or even someone who was on
drugs.