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Advocate Barbie trial resumes

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA Jun 15 2009 15:58

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The trial of Cezanne Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, resumed in the high court in Pretoria on Monday after a break of more than two months.

Visser was back in the dock on sex charges in the wake of weekend reports that her former lover, fugitive Dirk Prinsloo, had been arrested in Belarus.

Proceedings resumed with head of clinical psychology at Weskoppies Hospital, Professor Jonathan Scholtz, being cross-examined by state prosecutor Andre Fourie.

Acting Judge Chris Eksteen was told that the trial would soon be concluded, with defence advocate Johann Engelbrecht SC indicating that he would probably only call one more witness -- a social worker -- who would be ready to testify on Wednesday.

Eksteen said he hoped that the parties would be ready to deliver their final arguments this week, as he wanted the case to conclude as soon as possible as it had been dragging on for a long time.

Engelbrecht said it would not be possible to argue so soon, as his written heads of argument at this stage stretched over more than 300 pages, and he still had a lot to add.

Visser earlier pleaded not guilty to the 14 sex-related charges against her.

Neither Visser nor her mother, Susan Lemmer, wanted to speak about Prinsloo's arrest, stating that Engelbrecht instructed them not to speak to the media about it.

Scholtz, who earlier testified that Visser fitted the profile of a battered woman, on Monday reiterated this point.

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He said that while Visser could distinguish between right and wrong and had a will of her own, her ability to act accordingly was "severely compromised and curtailed".

He said Prinsloo, during the time they were a couple, wrote the script and she enacted it.

Fourie said to Scholtz that one of the problems the state had with Visser's defence that she was a battered woman and had no will of her own was that in many of the instances she took the initiative.

One such example, Fourie said, was where she fetched a child from an orphanage for a weekend visit to their home. That night the child was allegedly sexually molested. Fourie said that while sitting in the lounge, Prinsloo and Visser were watching pornographic videos and they sexually engaged with each other in front of the child.

Fourie said that at this point, Visser allegedly told the child to "watch carefully as this is how it is done", while Prinsloo told the child that she did not need to stay and watch if she did not want to.

"Here she took an important initiative," Fourie said.

Visser has denied this evidence.

The case stood down until Wednesday for Fourie to look over his notes in order to decide whether there were any more questions he wanted to pose to Scholtz. -- Sapa

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