BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/02/2010

Barbie asks Belarus attorney for help

Advocate Johann Engelbrecht did not name the lawyer he hopes will send him a psychiatric report on Prinsloo that he would use to persuade the court to give Visser a lenient sentence.

Visser will be sentenced in the Pretoria High Court this week after being found guilty last year on 11 sex-related charges, including child molestation and the manufacturing of child pornography.

Prinsloo, her co-accused, skipped bail and was later found guilty by a Belarus court on charges that included bank robbery and "torturing" a girlfriend.

He was sentenced to 13 years in jail last week.

Pretoria forensic criminologist Eon Sonnekus testified that Visser was "majorly (sic) depressed" during her relationship with Prinsloo.

Sonnekus told the court that Visser had shown regret and remorse for the crimes during several consultations with him.

"I wish I was wise at that stage," she told Sonnekus, adding that she regretted the pain she caused her family and her victims.

Visser was convicted of defrauding a children's home by pretending that she was married in order to convince the home to let children spend weekends with her and Prinsloo.

She was also found guilty on three charges of soliciting a 15-year-old girl to commit indecent acts, and of indecently assaulting girls aged 11 and 14.

Judge Chris Eksteen said in his judgment last year that Visser's testimony was contradictory.

But Sonnekus said "the question is actually whether the accused had absolute free will at the time of the crimes".

Eksteen said Visser's defence was based on the fact that Prinsloo had power over her, but other testimony contradicted this.

Sonnekus recommended that Visser be spared a jail sentence.

Source:

http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/article297896.ece


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