Pretoria - If the mother in the so-called Springs house of horrors tale is spared jail,
she will submit herself on whatever terms the court rule and undergo therapy, from either a psychiatrist or a psychologist.
This was according to her advocate Harry Prinsloo, who during a brief appearance of the pair on Tuesday, handed the name of the facility to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, which was prepared to treat her.
Judge Eben Jordaan on Monday indicated that he would sentence her and her husband, the so-called Springs monster, today.
However, he asked Prinsloo to issue him with the details of which facility would treat the 40-year-old mother. This is in case he decides to give her a suspended sentence, provided that she did go for treatment.
Prinsloo provided the name of a clinic in Brakpan which would provide her with this treatment.
If the judge decides on this option, the taxpayer will foot the bill, as the woman does not have the financial means to fund her own treatment.
Clinical psychologist Franco Visser, earlier in the trial testified on behalf of the woman that she and her five children had been exposed to levels of physical abuse and maltreatment, the likes of which he has not seen in his career thus far.
The woman told Visser how her now former husband had handcuffed her on many occasions and dragged her around by her hair. He also used to cuff her and their then 11-year-old son to the railings of the stairs of their double storey home for an entire night.
Visser said it seemed that the mother reached a level of helplessness and psychological paralysis within her relationship with her husband, which impaired on her ability to fulfil her role and duties as a mother.
He said there was no doubt that she suffered from battered woman syndrome and recommended that she receive lifelong therapeutic treatment.
The woman’s children, especially the oldest two, however, in statements handed to court this week, blamed their mother for the hell they had to go through at the hands of their father. They said she never lifted a finger to help them. The children, in fact, called for her to also go to jail.
The woman’s defence throughout was that she, too, was a victim of her husband’s temper and that she could do nothing to assist her children. Their eldest daughter, who was 16 when they were removed from their parents’ care, in a statement said her mother was not as innocent as she pretended to be, as she too, at times participated in the beatings.
While the mother was accompanied to court by her fiancé, the father also had supporters who gave him a hug ahead of Wednesday’s verdict.