‘Springs monster’: wife on trial also a ‘victim’

A 39-year-old Springs woman, who is accused of severely abusing and neglecting her five children, was also a victim of her abusive, antisocial husband and had identified with her “captor” to protect herself, a criminologist told the High Court in Pretoria.

Dr Pixie du Toit, a forensic criminologist, was testifying in the trial of the woman and her husband for the alleged severe abuse and neglect of their five children, then aged between two and 16, for years, attempting to murder their 11-year-old son, drug dealing and failing to send their children to school. The father is also accused of raping and sexually molesting his eldest daughter.

Du Toit testified that the mother’s behaviour was typical of Stockholm syndrome, in which long-term abuse creates dependency, making it psychologically impossible for the victim to leave.

She had endured regular beatings, with her husband giving her electric shocks, cuffing her hands behind her back, forcing her to commit sexual acts with prostitutes in front of him and throwing her out of the house naked.

The couple’s two eldest children testified about even worse beatings and brutal acts of torture at their father’s hands.

Du Toit described the father as a master manipulator with an antisocial personality who had total disregard for others and who committed criminal acts without remorse.

Du Toit said the mother’s family and the police had failed her dismally. No one had tried to help her or told her that she had a responsibility to report the abuse of her children.