Pretoria - A mother of three had to endure a nightmare in a police cell, sleeping on the cold concrete floor without bedding, after she was arrested in full view of fellow congregants in 2013 while at church.
This was simply because her former husband claimed she contravened a protection order he had obtained against her.
The complaint against Amali Visser, who lived in Florida, Joburg, at the time, was that she did not allow her husband, Christo Visser, access to their teenage daughter.
But Visser told the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, that her daughter refused to go with her two siblings to visit her husband for the weekend and she did not want to interfere.
Her livid husband took the police to the church service which Visser and her daughter were attending and insisted that she be arrested. It was said that he shouted commands at the police and that they simply obeyed.
The woman claimed R100 000 following her ordeal against the police, as well as from her former husband.
Judge Elizabeth Kubushi said while the police were wrong in arresting and throwing her in jail for the night, her husband could not be blamed for the arrest as this was purely in the hands of the police.
The police disputed any wrongdoing right up until the very last day of the trial.
However, shortly before the case was concluded they conceded that it was wrong to arrest the mother and to throw her in jail.
Judge Kubushi did not take kindly to this and awarded a punitive cost order against the police, for which the taxpayer will have to fork out.
“I consider the actions of the police - waiting until the last day of trial before informing the opponent of the concession - to be vexatious,” the judge said.
Apart from paying the hefty legal fees, the police (taxpayer) also has to pay Visser R80 000 in damages for the night she had to spend in jail.
Visser’s problems started on May 10, 2013, when her husband laid a complaint against her for breach of the protection order against her.
The complaint was that she denied him access to their then teenage daughter.
The husband usually fetched the children every second weekend from Friday to Sunday.
During the weekend in question, when he fetched the children as usual, the then 16-year-old refused to go with him.
He left with the other two children and when Visser and her daughter went to fetch the children on the Sunday, no one responded to the knock on the door.
They then left for church and while the service was on, her husband and the police arrived to arrest her.
Church members tried to intervene, but the police threw her into the back of a van and took her to Florida police station.
She was later moved to Linden police station before she was released the next day.
All charges were withdrawn against her.
Visser said the conditions in the cell were inhumane. She was forced to sleep on a cold cement floor without any bedding, other than two dirty blankets which were inadequate against the bitter cold winter night.
The toilet structure was open and filthy and created a stench in the cell. There was also no flowing water.
Visser described the incident as extremely traumatic and totally unnecessary.
She is now suffering from kidney problems, which her doctor said was probably a result of her sleeping on the cold floor in the cell.
Visser also said it was extremely humiliating when she was arrested in full view of her fellow church members.
The judge said there was no reason for her arrest and was of the view that R80 000 was fair compensation for spending a night in the cell.