By Karen Breytenbach
A police official whose then husband shot her children broke down during cross-examination on Wednesday, saying she felt he and his lawyer were attacking every part of her being and hammered on all her perceived mistakes to score legal points.
Captain Charlotte van der Westhuizen was questioned in minute detail about items she bought during her marriage to Marius van der Westhuizen, that he felt they could not afford.
Defence attorney Milton de la Harpe interrogated Captain van der Westhuizen about why she began dressing up in 2005, instead of continuing to wear tracksuits.
She said she returned to work and lost weight after maternity leave.
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Asked why she bought underwear and two leather jackets, paid R1 000 for the weight loss product Herbalife, R5 000 for whitening her teeth, R400 for a Verimark exercise product and R1 000 for a "see-through" shirt, she said she needed these items and paid for them herself.
The shirt was worn to her year-end work function. When asked if she wore a jacket over it, because it was too revealing, she burst into tears.
Judge Willem Louw warned that this line of questioning was unnecessary, unfair and upsetting. It was her fifth day under cross-examination.
She said her husband, who is on trial for the murder of the children, was angry about her spending and confiscated her credit card.
Told that he could have used the money to fix the pool and drains, she tearfully exclaimed she still could not fix these, because since the shooting of her children in 2006, her husband had not supported her.
"You stand there and argue with me about the pool and the drain pipes. My children were killed two years and three months ago. Mr De la Harpe is my husband's divorce attorney. I have no insurance. I need things. I have to rent a car, because my husband took our car. I have to take care of myself.
"For 12 years, I cared for his (disabled) daughter Bianca. I paid her school fees, her clothes, her haircuts. This tit-for-tat is so stupid.
"My sexuality, my womanhood, motherhood, my humanity, everything about me has been attacked in court. He shot my children and still I have to explain myself.
"Nothing has changed. I want my children back. I just want my children back," she said, as people in court wiped away tears.
De la Harpe said his client's ex-wife would claim that Captain van der Westhuizen physically abused Bianca and evidence would be presented to show a police psychologist found she exhibited manipulative behaviour.
She admitted to sometimes swearing at her husband and getting angry, but said this was normal.
Asked about secretive calls from a man, she said a close colleague she often confided in about her marital problems, phoned her about work.
Asked why she sometimes disappeared on Saturdays, she said she could have run errands or taken the children somewhere.
karen.breytenbach@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Times on November 06, 2008
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