Although former advocate Dirk Prinsloo was a manipulating, misogynistic, abusive narcissist, his lover at the time, Cezanne Visser, refused to dump him as he "did it for her" and their sex life was "unbelievably good."
This was the evidence of Prinsloo's former private assistant, Laurie Pieters, who resigned after three weeks when "things became too weird."
Pieters on Thursday told the Pretoria High Court that the last straw came when Prinsloo gave her black see-through lingerie and proudly told her that Visser had bought it at a Hustler shop.
Pieters said that Prinsloo was a bully who backed off quickly if a person stood up to him, adding he was more bark than bite.
She also testified that Prinsloo made Visser go to the gym, sometimes twice a day, because he did not like fat women. "I think it was his fantasy to have her looking like a Barbie doll."
Pieters said it was a standard joke in his home office that Prinsloo and Visser would call each other other their "sex god" and "sex goddess" respectively.
The court heard that Visser's mother, Susan, was extremely worried about her daughter's safety at the hands of Prinsloo.
She once phoned the house Prinsloo and Visser shared and Pieters answered. She told her to tell her daughter that she loved her and that she would always have a place at home.
Pieters said when she told Visser this, Visser became angry and said she had a protection order against her mother. Prinsloo went "ballistic" when he heard about the phone call.
Pieters said she once had to take Visser to the hospital for one of her breast enlargement operations. "I asked her why she was making it bigger, as it was already very big. She was worried about the operation but said that was what Dirk wanted. She said it would make him happy and improve their sex life."
Pieters said a year later Visser complained that her back was aching because of her large breasts. "I told her to remove the implants, because if Dirk really loved her, he would not put her health at risk. She said she could not do that because she loved him. She said she could not give up on the relationship because the sex was very good and the driving force behind their relationship."
After the pair were arrested on child sex charges, she talked to Visser about the arrest.
"She told me it was nothing serious - only some children they took from an orphanage who stole jewellery from them and who then made false claims (against them)."
Pieters said Visser further told her that in order to make the children feel more at ease, she and Prinsloo told them that they should walk naked around the house and not be ashamed of their bodies.
"I told her she was a bloody fool and that if she was not guilty, she should turn State witness against Dirk. She again said she could not because what he gave her, no other man has ever given her."
The defence, during cross-examination, claimed that Prinsloo was so abusive, that he at times called Visser "brain dead."
Pieters said she had never heard about that. Johann Engelbrecht SC also referred to a picture of a naked Visser with another woman. He said this woman (who may not be named as she too was an alleged victim) earlier testified that if Dirk told one to pose naked, you did not argue.
Pieters responded: "If he told me to do that I would have told him to go to hell."
Pieters did agree, however, that Visser often tried to please Prinsloo. "But it was not all the time, she did on occasion stand up to him," she said.
Proceeding