Advocate Barbie will spend her first Christmas in jail. The blond beauty faced a difficult year which saw both her and her former lover Dirk Prinsloo go to jail.
Cezanne Visser was jailed for seven years following the sexual deeds she and Prinsloo performed on young girls and women.
Prinsloo received a sentence of 13 years from the Baranovichi High Court for a bank robbery he committed in Belarus, Russia.
He will spend Christmas in a maximum security jail there, while Visser will celebrate Christmas in the Pretoria Women’s Jail.
With sentencing almost upon her early in February, Visser cracked and broke down in tears.
While heavily sedated, she had to be assisted by her mother, Susan Lemmer, in the dock while she appeared for the final arguments relating to sentencing in the Pretoria High Court.
Visser’s defence asked Acting Judge Chris Eksteen for a non-custodial sentence, saying she was not a danger to society.
However, due to her sedated state, arguments had to stand over for a week.
Visser had to spend some time in Vista Clinic and on her next court appearance seemed to be in much better shape.
Her advocate, Johann Engelbrecht SC, asked the court to have mercy on Visser.
He suggested that she received a jail sentence, but that it should be wholly suspended.
He further suggested that she underwent 36 months correctional supervision, which would include house arrest.
The State, on the other hand, suggested a jail term of between 15 and 20 years.
The prosecution accepted that she was vulnerable at the time of committing the offences, but said so were the children from an orphanage.
The defence said she had gained nothing from the crimes, but the State countered this by saying that she had, as she had wanted to please Prinsloo at all costs.
A day after hearing final arguments - on February 24 - Judge Eksteen sentenced Visser to a seven-year jail sentence.
Sitting quietly in the dock, she shed a tear and smiled back at her mother after hearing her fate.
She then held out her hands compliantly to a policewoman to be cuffed and walked down to the holding cells.
Visser was thrown a lifeline when she was released soon afterwards on R10 000 bail pending an application to appeal.
Her two orphanage victims, meanwhile, said it had been seven years of hell for them.
They were 11 and 15 when they fell prey to Visser and Prinsloo’s sexual antics when they were taken by the pair - then advocates – for a weekend visit to their beautiful home.
Janine du Plessis, the third child victim, meanwhile hanged herself from a tree near the Botswana border in March 2010, two weeks after Visser was sentenced.
Thrilled by the prospect of being pampered for the weekend by the affluent couple, the 15-year-old was the first to visit.
She was met by a home filled with pornographic videos and magazines.
She had to watch the couple having sex in front of her.
She was enticed to take off her clothes and swim naked, while she was shown the tattoos and piercings on the private parts of Visser’s body.
The teenager returned to the orphanage after her visit in tears.
A few weeks later, the 11-year-old was handpicked by Visser.
She too, had to endure much of the same experience.
Following Visser’s sentencing, they said they were still struggling to come to terms with what had happened to them when they were vulnerable children.
However, seeing their perpetrator being sentenced had helped to bring closure, the victims said after the trial.
But Visser’s day of facing the jail doors followed about three months later, when the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein turned down her appeal.
Her mother said the family were in shock but that her daughter was preparing herself mentally for jail.
Visser spent her last night at home having a braai with friends, before she reported on May 17 to start her jail term.
She and her mother entered the court building carrying between them a blanket and a few bags containing Visser’s possessions which she took with her to jail.
As she did throughout her trial, Visser did not speak much to the media, besides saying she was “OK”. Before sending her off to her fate for the next seven years, Judge Pieter van der Byl told Visser it was now the end of a long court saga.
He wished her well seconds after telling her that her name would be added to the sexual offences register.
This means that Visser will never be allowed to work with children.
Her mother said later that Visser had spent her first few days in jail in tears but that she was busy making friends there.
Her stepfather, Professor Johan Lemmer, said Visser had been freaked out during her first few nights by the “giant rats which ran across her bed”.
He described her as being broken.
Then more bad news for Visser followed – her two victims instituted a total damages claim against her of R1.5-million.
Visser responded by saying she would fight the claim, as she could not be held responsible for anything she might have done to her young victims as she was under the spell of Prinsloo.
There could, however, be a life-line for Visser - her plight will now be taken to the Constitutional Court.
No papers have yet been filed.
For now, Visser will have to face her fate in jail and spend her first Christmas away from her family. - Pretoria News