'Springs Monster' and ex find love as kids struggle to rebuild broken lives

The so-called Springs Monster speaking to his lawyer in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency/ANA

The so-called Springs Monster speaking to his lawyer in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Naude/African News Agency/ANA

Published Oct 6, 2018

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Pretoria - While the man dubbed the Springs Monster receives support from a new partner as he languishes in jail, and the mother of his children prepares to remarry, their five children are clearly struggling to pick up the pieces of their ruined lives.

In sentencing the man, 40, to 35 years in jail and giving his ex a suspended sentence, Gauteng High Court, Pretoria Judge Eben Jordaan commented that it was the duty of parents to look after their children - yet none of this couple’s five received such care.

The father, described as a psychopath and sadist, raped his daughter when she was 16 and nearly beat his son to death when he was 11. He claimed, as he was being led from court after sentencing this week, that all he wanted was to see his children again for “they are my life”.

But this is not a sentiment of the children, especially the eldest two who bore the brunt of the worst abuse and indicated in letters submitted to the court that they had disowned him. As far as they are concerned, their father can rot in jail and their mother should pay for not having done anything to protect them from a decade of abuse.

The children were not sent to school and all but the youngest attend a school for children with learning disabilities.

In a chilling statement handed to court, the boy - now 15 and identified as H - said: “I often think it is their fault that I will never be normal.

The ‘Springs Monster’, who has been convicted on eight charges, and his ex-wife, in court. Picture: Zelda Venter

“I do not call them my parents, because I don’t want to be their child. When I think about her (the mother) I become very angry. She was never a mother, because she never protected me against him. She did not even cry when he hurt me and she never stopped him. I remember once someone asked her if she prefers us or him. She said him. I will never forgive her. She was a bad mother,” he writes in Afrikaans.

“When I think about him, I hate everything about him. He never loved me and I do not want to be his son. Someone once said I looked like him. It made me very angry. If I could, I would have killed him myself Sometimes I wonder why I am still alive.”

The eldest daughter, identified as Y, who was like a mother to her four siblings, submitted an equally chilling statement giving insight into their lives before they were placed in state care four years ago.

“My parents went out during the day and I had to look after my brothers and sisters. We were not allowed to leave the house. He (father) watched us with all the cameras in the house and we were only allowed to watch television.

“”I always tried to hide my younger siblings from my father so that he could not hurt them I remember how he hung my older brother up by his arms and legs from a pillar. I remember how he dragged my little sister up the stairs by her foot

“So many things happened and I thought that is the way it should be. But now I know this is not how parents should act. My father raped me, but it is something I cannot talk about. It is part of my life that was stolen.”

The Springs Monster and his new girlfriend hold hands before he is led to the cells to start serving his prison term. Picture: Zelda Venter

She said she did not know what would have happened to them had H not gone to beg for help from the neighbours.

“I am angry with my mother, because I felt she got away with everything. What upsets me the most is thinking about my brothers and sisters in the orphanage, while she continues her life.”

J, who was four at the time, is now eight years old. A statement was made to court by a social worker on her behalf. In it she says that her mother is in jail (although she has been released with a suspended sentence) and says “she hated us”. Of her father she says he hit her repeatedly with a belt.

Another child, N, curled into a ball on her therapist’s lap when she had to make her statement. She said her parents were “dead”.

When given boxing gloves, she kicked and punched the bag and is reported as saying: “I hate you Jesus did not make you. The devil made you.”

The youngest child, D, was two when he was removed. The social workers said he couldn’t recall much. He didn’t know who his parents were.

Pretoria News

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