Cape Town ‘bunny boiler’ awaits her fate
Revenge attacks by spurned woman left couple ‘traumatised’
It’s a revenge story straight out of a Hollywood screenplay.
And while Pravina Walabh did not go as far as Glenn Close’s character in the psychological thriller Fatal Attraction — leaving a bunny boiling on the stove — the damage she caused was just as traumatic for her two victims.
Now the 34-year-old former candidate attorney is anxious about the punishment the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court will mete out to her in a week’s time.
This follows her conviction for stalking a former boss who went on to marry another lawyer.
Even the Democratic Alliance, animals and psychics had bit parts in Walabh’s drama, which ended when police nabbed her at Cape Town law firm MacRobert Incorporated, where she became obsessed with senior partner Dirk Pietersen.
In eight months before her arrest, Walabh:
Created Facebook profiles in the name of Pietersen and his wife, Lisa Melis, a director of a leading law firm, advertising sexual services;
Subscribed their e-mail accounts to depression and alcoholism newsletters;
Added Pietersen’s profile to a gay dating website;
Blocked Melis’s bank account before raiding it; and
Made numerous middle-of-the-night silent phone calls to their honeymoon suite in Namibia.
Pietersen and Melis were inundated with WhatsApp messages from strangers interested in their sexual services after Walabh included their cellphone numbers in the Facebook profiles.
Even Melis’s parents were not spared: they were subscribed to several magazines paid for with money from their daughter’s bank account.
Walabh was arrested in September 2012 after her seized computer and cellphone unmasked her as the stalker. She was charged with 37 counts including fraud, crimen injuria, assault and intimidation.
Prosecutor Juan Agulhas said in court papers: “Both Melis and Pietersen were advertised on an adult group website on Facebook and strangers were reacting to it by contacting them. Pietersen was also advertised on a gay dating site. It is difficult to imagine his pain, humiliation and suffering.”
One of the bogus e-mails the couple and their families received read: “We all know that Dirk is marrying Lisa for her money. He’s her lapdog and loves her money not her or her goblin nose and ears. She doesn’t have a clue. The poor boy she took in will do anything she wants as long as he is getting the deal.”
But hate mail was just a warm-up act for Walabh. While the couple were on honeymoon she blocked Melis’s Investec account by repeatedly using the wrong pin code. She then set up online debit orders to the value of about R50 000 from the account to the DA and charities before subscribing to numerous magazines which were delivered to the couple, their relatives and friends.
Among the unsuspecting beneficiaries were Four Paws Animal Welfare, Kitty and Puppy Haven and the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal.
Walabh denied the allegations and claimed MacRobert Incorporated had orchestrated the charges to get rid of her. She said she was asexual and found Pietersen unattractive, rude and unpleasant. She accused him of sexually harassing her.
An easy username and password assigned to her made her computer accessible to other staff members, she said, and they could have done the stalking. She said she also left her cellphone at work during the time she was at the law firm.
But magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg convicted her on 24 counts, saying: “The intelligent [and] computer-literate accused often used the services of different psychics. She was single and fixated with [Pietersen] despite referring to him as rude and unattractive.
“He irritated her for among other [things] not sending her to court but preferred to send another candidate attorney.
“She watched a movie and applied the concept ‘Don’t get mad, get even’.”
In a social worker’s report to the court, Walabh’s family describe her as “reserved, shy, respectful, compassionate and naive”. Her lawyer, Reaz Khan, has pleaded for a noncustodial sentence and correctional supervision.
Khan said Walabh was remorseful and accepted that she had caused enormous emotional and physical pain to her victims, and had apologised. Walabh has not been able to find work since she was arrested and claims that she and her family have suffered “enormous” stress.
“Any accused would be anxious about sentencing, but we are hoping we will get the sentence we want,” said Khan. “All the reports we obtained, including one that the court requested, were all favourable of a noncustodial sentence being imposed.”
Melis told the Sunday Times: “I would prefer not to comment in any detail save to say that the whole experience was incredibly disruptive and traumatic for us both personally and professionally and we would like to thank our families, friends and colleagues for their support through the process.”