'Give Barbie a chance'

Cezanne Visser - the convicted child molester known as "Advocate Barbie" - has several job offers on her release on parole.

The head of Correctional Services' incarceration and corrections unit, deputy commissioner James Smalberger, refused to give details of the job offers - and pleaded with the public to give Visser a second chance.

"We need to give her space to apply her mind and decide which job she is going to take," said Smalberger.

Visser will be placed under "house detention" after serving three years of a seven-year sentence. She was convicted on an array of charges, including the indecent assault of two teenage girls, the manufacture of child pornography and defrauding a children's home.

A smiling Visser emerged from the Correctional Services national headquarters in the Pretoria CBD yesterday morning, holding hands with her mother. Susan Lemmer.

Visser hurried past journalists, answering "yes" when asked if she regretted her crimes before being sped away in an SUV .

The NGO Women and Men Against Child Abuse has opposed Visser's parole, saying the seven-year sentence was lenient for such "heinous" crimes.

"How can the parole board approve the release of a serial sadistic sexual offender? Visser should have [got] the maximum sentence for her crimes against children. She should have got a life sentence," the organisation's advocacy manager, Germaine Vogel, said.

Visser was found guilty of indecently assaulting two girls, aged 11 and 14, and of soliciting a 13-year-old girl to commit indecent acts.

The ANC Women's League welcomed Visser's parole "despite the horrendous crimes" but expressed disappointment that her lover at the time of the crimes, Dirk Prinsloo, escaped South African prosecution. Prinsloo fled to Belarus while standing trial. But in February 2010 he was sentenced to 13 years in prison in Belarus for theft, assault and attempted bank robbery.

"We trust that Visser is genuinely remorseful and will, in continuing atonement for the heinous crimes she participated in, become an active and committed member of society contributing to the fight against the abuse of women and children," the deputy president of the women's league, Nosipho Ntwanambi, said.

As well as being barred from visiting children's homes and leaving the magisterial district of Pretoria, Visser is not allowed to contact her victims, use drugs or have a blood-alcohol level above 0.05%.

Smalberger said Visser will be visited by Correctional Services officials at least eight times a month.

"We will go to her house or job, or she will be required to come to [us] or we will call her to ensure that she is where she is supposed to be."