No deterrent to perverts

DISBARRED advocate Cezanne Visser walked out of prison triumphant in Pretoria this week, much the same way as she entered it: amid controversy and public outrage.

When she reported for her seven-year stretch in May 2010, there was general revulsion at the perver- sion she and her boyfriend, fellow advocate Dirk Prinsloo, had indulged in.

The couple had preyed on girls from children’s homes, using them as sex toys and for pornography. Visser and Prinsloo (who skipped the country and is serving 13 years for robbery in Belarus) posed as a married couple to check out their victims from their homes. Their cloaks of esteem and trust as officers of the court hid their nefarious deeds.

Visser claimed she had done so under Prinsloo’s spell. This was roundly rejected by the judge. But she emerged into the light, with stringent parole conditions, on Monday, her prison time done.

She had served just three years and three months – half her term, after the government issued a general, six-month reduction. Some accepted her release, others were disappointed, believing it did nothing to fight a grave problem in society.

As if to punctuate their fears, news broke on Wednesday of police in South Africa arresting six people – a private school principal, a retired princi- pal, a teacher, a lawyer, an IT specialist and a dermatologist – in connection with an international child pornography ring. More arrests are expected.

And closer to home in Ceres, still reeling after the rape of a seven-year-old boy and a four-month-old baby a few weeks ago, we discovered that a schoolgirl and two boys were raped in the past two weeks. A serious fault in our society indeed. Visser may have reformed in prison and may never do harm again. But three years and three months for what she did offers no comfort to her victims, nor any deterrent to deviant predators. And there are many out there, it seems.