Mom describes domestic hell

Torture, hunger, filth, pornography, prostitution and drugs seemed to have formed part of the daily lives of five Springs siblings, whose parents are on trial for child abuse and neglect.

This emerged on Monday when the children’s 38-year-old mother started testifying after a panel of psychiatrists found she was able to distinguish between right and wrong and to act accordingly.

She was conservatively dressed in a dark pants suit and there was no sign of the bleached blonde hair, heavy make-up and revealing clothes she used to wear.

She only looked at her husband once, when she said he had used steroids and was far more muscular before he went to prison.

The couple pleaded not guilty to charges ranging from attempting to murder their 11-year-old son to child abuse and neglect.

The father refused to testify, but the mother on Monday told the court how he had abused her, their eldest daughter and especially their eldest son, who was at times strung up between two pillars, hit with a sjambok and a knobkerrie, burnt with a blow torch and shot at with a BB gun.

When she tried to interfere, he hit her as well.

Her husband preferred her dressed up like a prostitute and had “kinky” sex with her after they watched pornographic videos.

He would punch and drag her around and sometimes handcuffed her to a pool table when she refused him regular sex.

He allowed a prostitute to ply her trade from their home and had a Nigerian deliver drugs to their house, which he re-packed before he and their eldest daughter sold them.

He also gave her and their daughter drugs.

Her husband refused to let any of the children go to school and only allowed them outside when he was there. He had 37 cameras around the house and obsessively watched the security tapes, punishing anyone who did wrong, she said.

She admitted their rented house was filthy with rats so large that they simply ran over the traps. She claimed her husband never gave her time to clean and wanted her with him 24 hours a day.

There was no food in the house and the family mostly lived on takeaways, because her husband did not like her food.

More gruesome details are expected to emerge today.

He punched and dragged me around and sometimes handcuffed me to a pool table when I refused him regular sex.