Cezanne Visser (Advocate Barbie) Jailed For 7 Years For Sexual Abuse Of Girls

Advocate Barbie jailed for 7 years

Feb 24, 2010 11:45 AM | By Charl du Plessis

Cezanne Visser, known to South Africans as Advocate Barbie, has been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for sexually-related crimes against young women and children.



Acting judge Chris Eskteen, sentencing Visser in the North Gauteng High Court, said that “the only fit sentence is a period of incarceration, there is no alternative that is appropriate in this case.”

Visser, showing no emotion, was immdiately handcuffed and taken to a holding cell.

She was found guilty on 11 charges, including two of indecently assaulting two girls of 11 and 14 years and soliciting a 13-year-old to commit indecent acts.

She was also sentenced on a charge of defrauding a children's home in order to get them to allow children to spend weekends with her and her former lover, Dirk Prinsloo.

The judge also linked her to the indecent assault of a 20-year-old woman, indecently assaulting two other younger women and the possession and manufacturing of child pornography.

Visser's legal team, let by Advocate Johan Engelbrecht, has applied for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The application was opposed by the state.

The judge will deliver his verdict on the application this afternoon.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article324296.ece

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=33361

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1117289

Cezanne Visser denied leave to appeal

Feb 24, 2010 3:08 PM | By Charl du Plessis and Sap

Judge Chris Eskteen has rejected Cezanne Visser’s application for leave to appeal her sentence, after she was sentenced to seven year’s imprisonment. Visser has been released on increased bail of R10, 000 pending a decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Visser’s defence has indicated that it will now appeal directly to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Visser, referred to in the media as Advocate Barbie, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for sexually-related crime against young women and children.

Eksteen, passing sentence in in the North Gauteng High Court this morning, said that “the only fit sentence is a period of incarceration, there is no alternative that is appropriate in this case.”

She was found guilty on 11 charges, including two of indecently assaulting two girls of 11 and 14 years and soliciting a 13-year-old to commit indecent acts.

She was also sentenced on a charge of defrauding a children's home in order to get them to allow children to spend weekends with her and her former lover, Dirk Prinsloo.

The judge also linked her to the indecent assault of a 20-year-old woman, indecently assaulting two other younger women and the possession and manufacturing of child pornography.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article324848.ece

‘Seven years not enough for Barbie’

PRETORIA - Convicted sex offender Cezanne Visser should have been sent to jail for 70 years and not seven, Women and Men Against Child Abuse said on Wednesday.



Reacting to Visser’s sentencing earlier in the day executive director Miranda Friedmann said this made a mockery of the trauma caused to victims of sexual obuse.

“Child sexual abuse does not always receive the condemnation and punishment it should in our country, as proven by our low conviction rate on sexual offences against children,” Friedmann said.

“With all the evidence that was available to the court Advocate Barbie’s Visser’s well known alias sentence of seven years, received today, would have made a mockery of the suffering and trauma caused by this crime if it had been anything less.”

The High Court in Pretoria jailed Visser for seven years for 11 sex-related charges, including indecently assaulting two teenage girls and soliciting a teenager to commit indecent acts.

A ruling on Visser’s application for leave to appeal was expected later on Wednesday.

http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=117171,1,22

Barbie's victims can't forget

February 25 2010

It has been seven years of hell for two of Cezanne Visser's victims, and while she faces seven years in jail for her part in the sexual abuse of children and young women, the two girls who were taken from a children's home in Pretoria will be haunted by grim memories of what happened to them for the rest of their lives.

Not even the single tear which trickled down Visser's cheek as she sat in the dock awaiting her fate softened the hearts of the victims, now young women.

While neither would say whether they would ever forgive her, both were adamant that they were happy that she was being sent to jail.

The two were in the Pretoria High Court yesterday to witness Visser - also nicknamed "Advocate Barbie" - being sentenced. Both said it was a relief that the trial was now over.

The younger of the two, who was 11 when she fell prey to Visser and her then-lover Dirk Prinsloo, said although Visser may go to jail, it did not make up for the pain and suffering she had to endure. "It was a terrible time; in fact it was hell. But her going to jail for seven years is better than nothing. Her jail sentence will hopefully give me a new beginning and help me to gather together all the pieces of my life."

The victim, now 18 and who lives with her boyfriend, blamed Visser for the fact that she did not complete school. She said: "I am still very emotional. The pain will not go away soon; it will always be there, but I am trying to handle it."

She said it was difficult to see Visser again after all these years, although she had kept abreast of the case by reading the newspapers and keeping all the stories. She had received counselling, but it didn't help much. "I am now trying to process it all by myself."

She said she had learnt not to trust anybody, and her mission was to become a motivational speaker and help other children in the same position.

"I was very vulnerable when they took me home for a weekend. From the start I was not keen on visiting them."

This victim, who was 18 months of age when her mother dropped her off at the children's home, said that in her eyes Visser and Prinsloo (now in jail in Belarus) were equally guilty.

The other victim, now 23, dreamt of becoming a lawyer. When the couple took her for a weekend visit, she was ecstatic, as she thought they as advocates could make her dream come true. "After what they did to me I no longer want to be associated with that profession," she said.

"I am angry and disappointed. How could they (Prinsloo and Visser) do such things to children? Did they think because we were in an orphanage we had no rights?"

The pretty brunette said she still had nightmares about her ordeal and she woke up in a cold sweat. "At least the trial is over and I no longer have to see her face in the newspapers."

Although she shed a tear while awaiting her sentence, Visser put on a brave smile for her mother, Susan Lemmer, after hearing her fate.

She then held out her hands compliantly to a policewoman to be cuffed and walked down to the holding cells.

At first Lemmer too kept a brave face, but after an adjournment she broke down and sobbed bitterly.

During sentencing both she and Visser sat stone-faced and listened to the judge blasting Visser for what she had done to her victims. Acting Judge Chris Eksteen said that while Prinsloo's hold over her was a mitigating factor, he had no choice but to send her to jail. After sentencing Visser was released on R10 000 bail pending an application to appeal.

Meanwhile, attorney Pieter van R Coetzee, who kept a watching brief at court on behalf of the children, will establish what their legal rights are before possible considering any further legal action.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?fsetid=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100225072312279C660129

Thanks for the replies Blackrose and Schnuffel.

I think it is because they are ugly, twisted and evil one expects them to look 'different' in some way....

I guess that Visser looked a bit like one of those women that marry rich older guys for money.... which would make her greedy etc but not a dirty perverted cow.

One of Barbie's child victims kills herself

March 08 2010

By Barry Bateman

A victim of convicted sex offender Cezanne Visser and her partner Dirk Prinsloo has committed suicide, nine years after the pair molested her on her 14th birthday.

Although details were unclear by the time of going to press, it is believed Janine du Plessis, 23, was found hanging from a tree near the Botswana border.

Apparently Du Plessis, who was recently discharged from a drug rehabilitation centre, was visiting Botswana with the father of her child, who is said to be in the care of her mother, Marie.

Marie said last night she was not in a position to talk to the media.

Two weeks ago, the Pretoria High Court sentenced Visser - also known as Advocate Barbie - to seven years in jail for her part in the sexual abuse of children and young women. She is appealing the sentence.

Prinsloo is currently serving out a 13-year jail sentence in Belarus for a bank robbery.

Last night, Visser's stepfather, Johan Lemmer, said that Visser and her mother Susan had just received the news of the suicide. "The family is in shock, that is all we have to say," he said.

Laurie Pieters, Prinsloo's former private assistant and an offender profiler, said she conducted a victim impact assessment on Du Plessis last year.

Questioned whether the abuse played a role in her psychological development and eventual suicide, Pieters said: "Of course, it did.

"The fall out from abuse was horrifying for the child's life and her parents.

"The whole family was devastated," she said.

Pieters said the impact of the abuse meant Du Plessis never developed from a girl into a woman.

"The child ran away from home and became a heroin addict, got involved with Nigerians, got raped and was on drugs for years."

Pieters said when she last heard about Du Plessis, she had been admitted to a drug rehabilitation centre in December for her heroin problem.

She said her child, presumed to be about 14 months old, was in her mother's care.

Child Abuse Action Group (CAAG) spokeswoman Lucy Redivo agreed that the abuse had a significant role in Du Plessis' mental well-being. "It must have played a part. I am angry that now there is another orphan.

"(Du Plessis) was never given proper assistance from the state.

"Nine years after the abuse and she only has some finality because the case is now going to the appeals court. If you are a victim of trauma, you see that as the perpetrators going free," she said.

Last year, Visser told the Pretoria High Court that she met Du Plessis through an organisation which housed homeless children.

Visser testified that she often took Du Plessis out for coffee and shopping and, when she turned 14, Prinsloo suggested they give her a treat at home for her birthday.

The couple served the child alcoholic drinks and at the end of the evening Visser claimed Prinsloo gave Du Plessis a drug-laced cup of Milo.

"She became drowsy and Dirk picked her up and said he would lay her down. When I walked to the main bedroom later, I found them in the guest bedroom.

"She was lying on her back and Dirk had already ejaculated over her stomach," said Visser.

Du Plessis confirmed in court Visser's claim that she was given Milo and that she felt drowsy after drinking it. She said she was taken to the main bedroom and all she could remember was flashing lights.

When she woke up she was naked.

She testified that she had subsequently become involved in drugs and prostitution and that she was, at the time of her testimony, working at a strip club.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100308040944579C572417

RIP Janine du Plessis

Convicted child molester, Cezanne Visser, tries to get off on 'Battered woman syndrome' defence appeal

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Convicted child molester Cezanne Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, has filed an affidavit to the Supreme Court of Appeals seeking leave to appeal her conviction by Acting Judge Chris Eksteen in the High Court in Pretoria.

Eksteen following an application in the court a quo refused Visser leave to appeal against his finding on the merits but allowed her bail pending the outcome of her application to the SCA.

At this stage legal counsel do not appear to be seeking leave to appeal the sentence which is a wise move following what we consider to be almost a triumph in achieving a sentence that appears to be extremely fair to say the least.

Visser was sentenced to 7 years in prison having been found guilty of 11 sex-related charges, including indecently assaulting two teenage girls and soliciting a teenager to commit indecent acts; indecently assaulting two women and benefiting from the indecent assault of a third; defrauding a children's home and possession and manufacturing of child pornography.

In terms of the affidavit filed on her behalf Visser claims that she has a more than reasonable chance of success in her appeal.

This she attributes to her suffering from 'battered woman syndrome' which occurred while she was living with co-accused Dirk Prinsloo, who is currently serving a sentence in Belarus for an attempted bank robbery. The syndrome "cuts through the barriers of intelligence and intelligence plays no role", states Visser, who passed two law degrees with honours.

The battered woman defense is a legal defense representing that the person accused of an assault or murder was suffering from battered person syndrome at the material time. Because the defense is almost invariably invoked by women, it is usually characterised in court as battered woman syndrome or battered wife syndrome.

There is currently no medical classification to support the existence of this "syndrome" in the sense used by lawyers, though it has historically been invoked in court systems. Although the condition is not gender-specific, the law has been persuaded to remedy perceived gender bias in the operation of the defense of self-defense by admitting evidence of the condition.

Thus, this is a reference to any person who, because of constant and severe domestic violence usually involving physical abuse by a partner, may become depressed and/or unable to take any independent action that would allow him or her to escape the abuse. The condition explains why abused people may not seek assistance from others, fight their abuser, or leave the abusive situation. Sufferers may have low self-esteem, and are often led to believe that the abuse is their fault.

Such persons may refuse to press charges against their abuser, or refuse all offers of help, perhaps even becoming aggressive or abusive to others who attempt to offer assistance. This has been problematic because there is no consensus in the medical profession that such abuse results in a mental condition severe enough to excuse alleged offenders. Nevertheless, the law makes reference to a psychological condition even though currently there is no medical classification that includes the syndrome in the sense used by lawyers.

As such Visser's appeal - should her petition succeed, is going to attract the legal and medical fraternity.

She claims that "low self esteem and naiveté" played a role in how she was manipulated by Prinsloo. The judge according to her papers did not take into account by how much she based her self esteem on her body.
Prinsloo.

Whether "battered women syndrome" qualifies as a condition which would exclude mens rea (intention) or a grounds of justification that would cure the unlawfulness of the crimes for which she has been convicted or not is for the SCA to decide. Based upon the exact same evidence that was before Judge Eksteen at the time.

What is clear is that while her reading of her chances to succeed on appeal are slightly optimistic the SCA might well factor in the need to deal with the question of where 'battered woman syndrome' is currently situate within our law.

http://www.therichmarksentinel.com/rs_headlines.asp?recid=4222

'Battered woman syndrome' defence offered by Visser

Former Advocate Cézanne Visser has submitted a 151-page affidavit to the SCA in a bid to overturn her conviction of a series of sex offences against three girls from a children's home and three women.

http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20100324082903638

The case of 'Advocate Barbie' and her lack of remorse

Mar 28, 2010

The world has its fair share of scum parading in plain clothes, and then there are sleazeballs of the likes of Cezanne Visser, otherwise known as Advocate Barbie.

Why this woman thinks she ought to still be outside prison after the litany of sexual abuses she had inflicted on her young and often underage victims is beyond me.

After subjecting us to an orgy of sordid details about her sex life, in a trial that has gone on for close to eight years, you would have thought that she would accept her fate and quietly go off to serve her sentence.

But no, not this child molester.

In her latest bid to stay out of prison, she appealed her seven-year jail sentence this week, on the grounds that she was a victim of battered woman syndrome.

She would like us to believe that, like a woman who can't get out of an abusive relationship, she too could not leave her live-in-lover, former advocate Dirk Prinsloo, despite knowing full well that what she was doing was wrong and unlawful.

In case you have been so revolted by this case, as I have been, and have chosen to forget its finer details, Visser, together with Prinsloo, sexually molested a host of young girls and women over time.

In a cocktail of sex and lies that more resembles a pornographic movie than real life, these two preyed on young girls from orphanages whom they would pick up for weekends - and then severely abuse. The couple lied to the orphanages, pretending to be married in order to get access to the children. They would drug them, sexually molest them (details of which are too gross to repeat here) and then photograph them and use the images in pornographic movies.

Visser was sentenced in February to seven years in jail after being convicted on 11 sex charges - which included indecently assaulting two teenage girls and soliciting a teenager to commit indecent acts; indecently assaulting two women and benefiting from the indecent assault of a third; defrauding a children's home and developing child pornography.

Most of her victims were between 11 and 14 at the time the crimes occurred.

Visser was denied leave to appeal against this sentence but was given bail pending the outcome of her application to the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal.

In court papers filed this week, she argues that she had had low self-esteem and was naïve, making her a sitting duck for the manipulative Prinsloo. She claims that her "intelligence" (she apparently has two law degrees) has had no bearing on this syndrome.

"For a woman, my body symbolised my entire personality," she is reported to have said in her appeal papers.

Right. That will explain why she transformed her body with those gigantic fake boobs which at some point in the trial became the focal point, and also produced raunchy videos which she posted on the Internet for the world to see.

That aside, you would have thought that Visser would show a bit of shame, if not for the sake of her victims, then for her mother at least.

In sentencing Visser, Acting Judge Chris Eksteen had said the lives of the victims had been "ripped to shreds". And indeed, barely two weeks ago, one of Visser's victims, Jeannine du Plessis, 21, ended her life with the medication that was supposed to help her end her drug addiction.

Du Plessis was found dead underneath a tree with a rope around her neck.

Clearly, the intention had been to hang herself, but the overdose killed her first.

Du Plessis had become a heroin addict and a seriously troubled mother who, as a child, had moved from one orphanage to another. She also tested positive for HIV according to News24.Com.

Her mother, Marie du Plessis, put the blame squarely at the door of Visser and Prinsloo, saying the death was a direct result of what the two had done to her daughter.

It is Du Plessis that Barbie was found to have indecently assaulted, and that was only because rape could not be conclusively proved to have occurred. This, on the young woman's 15th birthday.

This is but one of the heart-wrenching stories that have come out of this sordid saga of a woman whom the media had chosen to call Barbie, in sharp contrast to the pleasure that the real Barbie doll has given to so many young girls.

Her victims are many: some are known, having appeared in court during the trial - but there are those whose nude pictures which were found in the possession of Visser have not yet told their stories.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/article376638.ece/The-case-of-Advocate-Barbie-and-her-lack-of-remorse

Visser loses appeal

May 14 2010

Convicted child molester Cezanne Visser, also known as Advocate Barbie, was expected to spend a last weekend at home, before reporting to authorities on Monday to start her seven-year jail term.

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on Thursday dismissed Visser's application for leave to appeal her conviction in the High Court in Pretoria.

Visser was found guilty and sentenced for 11 sex-related charges, including indecently assaulting two teenage girls and soliciting a teenager to commit indecent acts; indecently assaulting two women and benefiting from the indecent assault of a third; defrauding a children's home and possession and manufacturing of child pornography.

Visser's lawyer Johan Engelbrecht said he spoke to his client and they were disappointed by the appeal court's decision. He said he received no further instructions.

High Court Judge Chris Eksteen refused Visser leave to appeal his finding on the merits of the case.

He granted her bail of R10 000 pending the outcome of her application to the SCA.

The High Court found Visser had willingly associated herself with and actively participated in depraved sexual activities at her former lover and co-accused Dirk Prinsloo's house.

The court held she had taken the initiative to approach children's homes to get young girls in order to sexually abuse them.

Her actions were consistently aimed at the sexual abuse of children and women solely for the gratification of her and Prinsloo's sexual needs, the judge said at the time.

Prinsloo, who disappeared while on a business trip to Russia several years ago, has in the meantime been arrested in Belarus for allegedly attempting to rob a bank in that country.

Appeal Court Judges Mohamed Navsa and Belinda van Heerden presided over the SCA application.

Visser had 48 hours to report to the High Court in Pretoria from the moment she was informed of the SCA's decision on Thursday.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100513221756170C912580

Barbie finally heads for jail

May 17 2010

On Monday Cezanne Visser, the woman whose sordid sex trial grabbed headlines for eight years, will walk through the doors of the women's prison in Potgieter Street in the city centre.

This weekend Visser, or Advocate Barbie as she became known, not only had to bid her family and friends farewell before starting her seven year sentence, she also had to prepare for life without her usual comforts.

Her stepfather, Johann Lemmer, said yesterday there were limits to what she could take and will even be issued toilet paper for the week by prison authorities.

Lemmer said they had consulted somebody who often works inside prison for guidelines.

Asked how Visser was coping, Lemmer said when she heard on Thursday that her leave to appeal had been denied, she cried until the tears ran dry. "Cezanne decided to spend her last weekend at home, where she entertained friends on Saturday night who came to bid her farewell.

"They had a braai while Susan (Lemmer's wife) and I went out.

"She spent the day today (Sunday) alone with her mother. They will have some 'us time' as they are extremely close."

Visser's mother, who is extremely upset by the latest turn of events, said: "I think Cezanne has prepared herself mentally for this a long time ago. She told me she is just going to do her best in jail. She wants to assist other inmates with her knowledge of law and computers."

Speaking from her bed on Saturday after she had received an injection to sedate her, Lemmer said she worried about her daughter's well-being in jail. "My Cezanne is an outdoor person. I worry how jail will affect her. We don't even know how big her cell will be or with whom she will have to share. It is going to be extremely difficult to let her go."

But she promised never to give up on her only child.

At the weekend the family terminated the services of their advocate, Johann Engelbrecht SC. All they wanted to say was that Engelbrecht was a top criminal lawyer, but they now needed an expert in the field of procedural law.

"We are looking for the best. We are going to consult with a lawyer tonight (Sunday) to establish whether there is a constitutional route we can take. Unfortunately Cezannie will have to go to jail in the meantime, but we will do all we can," Johann Lemmer said.

While Visser admitted committing sexual acts with minors and taking them from a children's home under false pretences, she pleaded not guilty, claiming she was under the influence of her former co-accused, Dirk Prinsloo. Visser stood trial alone as Prinsloo skipped bail and was later arrested for armed robbery in Belarus where he is now serving a prison sentence.

The judge found Visser guilty and rejected her claim that she had no will of her own.

Lemmer said he has known Visser for the past few years and he believes in her. "I know she is not lying about anything and the unfairness of it all this upsets me greatly."

He and her mother were due to be at her side when she reported for prison on Monday.

Lemmer added that he tried to mentally prepare Visser this weekend for what was waiting for her in jail. But it still did not make things easier, especially as they were expecting a media circus.

"We are still not sure whether she will have to report to court or go straight to jail, but I told her to hold her head high as she walks in."

In another turn of events, the trial which led to the Lemmers falling in love, is now causing them marital problems.

"We never really had a chance from the start, but we love each other. There was just too much anxiety over the trial," Lemmer said.

But he was adamant that he will stand by Visser and her mother and hoped they would work out their problems.

"Susan is a wonderful woman who gave her all for her child. This has been extremely difficult for her."

Susan Lemmer also said the trial was difficult for her husband, but she was confident they would work out their differences.

A lawyer said Visser will, in terms of prison policy, only have to spend about half her sentence in jail before being considered for parole.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100517044314180C954600&page_number=1

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=39720