Unimaginable torture described

Horrific beatings - details of which are emerging during the bail application of the Springs father accused of abusing his wife and five children - could point to him being a sadistic psychopath.

Experts believe his alleged prolonged assault on his children, aged between two and 16 and wife, are "tantamount to torture".

Warrant-Officer Rudy Jansen gave graphic testimony in the Springs Magistrate's Court yesterday of how the man allegedly abused his children and wife - reducing several people in the public gallery to tears.

So severe are the alleged assaults that the investigators have ordered full-body X-rays on the alleged victims, with specific instructions to look for healed broken bones and damaged internal organs.

Jansen testified that the assaults against the 11-year-old boy included his being suspended by his hands and feet by chains from poles. He was also whipped, sprayed with teargas and hit with a knobkerrie.

Other children were stabbed, cut across their faces and beaten with pool cues.

The children and their mother were rescued two weeks ago after the 11-year-old escaped from their home and alerted neighbours.

The boy was rescued from a relative's home in Warden, Free State, after his father allegedly smuggled him there. The man hid his son in the ceiling when police raided the house.

Jansen said: "When we found his son his eyes were bleeding. That is how severely he had been beaten . the last beating he had was the previous week. The bruises on his face were everywhere . black, green, purple, blue."

The boy had initially told Jansen the 16 scars found on his head were from falls from his quadbike, the officer said.

"But he later revealed that they were from the knobkerrie his dad used to beat him.

"He told us of near drownings in a bath, of being tied up between poles in a lounge by his hands and feet for days, [being] teargassed when he cried, and sprayed with water.

"I asked him how often he was beaten and he said it was so much he could not remember."

Jansen said the mother was regularly beaten in the face and ribs with a pool cue.

"[The accused's] 16-year-old daughter was subjected to electric shocks. the little ones have numerous cuts to their faces. There are signs that they were all assaulted," Jansen said.

The accused had also allegedly repeatedly raped his wife.

The head of the police investigation psychology unit, Brigadier Gerard Labuschagne, testified that the assaults were "tantamount to torture. The alleged behaviour is psychological and physical manipulation formed by a long-standing pattern.''

Such behaviour was unlikely to stop in the future, said Labuschagne, opposing bail.

Dr Giada del Fabbro of the Wits University psychology department told The Times: "We are looking at someone who is extremely psychopathic with no empathy for those around him . A sadistic psychopath at that, who prioritises power and control over others and objectifies other human beings, who can be charming to those around him."

She said what had allegedly happened was not a first: "We are scratching the surface of a phenomenon that is far bigger than what we realise.

"Internationally, there is a lot of attention around these cases, but locally we are just starting to have our own."

Independent forensic psychologist Jackie de Wet told The Times such offenders were not obvious: "You will walk past them 100 times a day and never know who they are. They have an outward appearance portraying someone socially well-adjusted, relatively intelligent and described as normal, [they are] not people walking around with bloodshot eyes, drooling.

"It is amazing what people are capable of doing if they know no one is looking."

De Wet said the fear created in the children would never go away.

The man's aunt, speaking to The Times outside court, defended him, saying: "Everyone smacks their kids, especially if they are naughty. I don't think it was always this bad ". he knows he was wrong and went too far, but he simply hit the kid in the wrong place and the wrong time [the face].

"If he hit the boy elsewhere it wouldn't have been that bad," the aunt said.