'I cannot believe he is this thing'

"A gentleman with impeccable manners" who thought nothing of lending a helping hand to tenants.

This facade that an East Rand used-car salesman and father of five spent years building shattered yesterday when he appeared in the Springs Magistrate's Court.

He is accused of holding his wife and five children prisoner in their home.

The children - two boys and three girls aged 2, 5, 7, 11 and 16 - have never attended school and are believed never to have left the house until now.

Starved, whipped, beaten, electrocuted and burnt on the soles of their feet with blow torches, they know only the life dictated to them by their father.

Now being held in prison pending a bail hearing next week, he faces charges of child abuse and assault with the intent to commit grievous bodily harm. Police are also investigating allegations of incest and home-made pornography after dozens of DVDs were found in the house.

The world in which the man lived - a world of motorbike clubs, expensive cars and flashy clothes, watches and cellphones - was destroyed when his 11-year-old son escaped from their highly secure Springs home last week and fled to neighbours bleeding and screaming for help.

"I just remember them [the children] screaming over and over again. They were pleading for their brother to come back, to stop talking to us. To keep quiet," a neighbour said.

"His sister and mother kept on telling him, 'Daddy is only joking, Daddy is only playing.'

"But he wasn't. The beating that followed is like nothing I have ever seen. Over and over again. He didn't stop. His son was defenceless, helpless," said the neighbour.

"What I saw and what I thought I knew are two different things, two different worlds."

No one outside the family appears to know for how long the family have lived in their home.

"It has been years. Never once did I see a child come out of that house," said a tenant who lives on the grounds of the extensive property.

Another tenant said she had seen a boy's face at a window once, but when she had asked her "gentleman landlord" about it, she had been told there was no one there.

"He was always well-mannered. He helped me have my car fixed and lent me a car while mine was being fixed.

"His manners were impeccable. A true gentleman, not this monster people are talking about.

"I cannot believe they say he is this thing, that he was living a double life," she said.

Clinical psychologist Leonard Carr said "evil is not a good enough explanation" for what the man had allegedly done. "It is clearly tyrannical behaviour.

"The disturbing thing is that, though one expects some kind of madness, people who perpetrate unspeakable atrocities can live perfectly normal and often boring lives."

Forensic psychologist Jackie de Wet said there was no "blueprint" to describe why a person like this did what they allegedly did.

"From the limited information on what he reportedly did, it shows a man with definite sadistic undertones and a probability of a hedonistic-type personality, where he derives pleasure from inflicting pain and possibly prolonged acts of mutilation."

Both psychologists said the damage to the children, who are suspected to have been sexually molested, was immeasurable.

De Wet said the trauma would remain with them forever.

"There is no overnight remedy. It is a long and arduous process, with the older children facing the toughest battles.

"The teenagers have been robbed of their childhood . they have allegedly been tortured for their entire lives . since birth.

"Their context of life is what happened to them inside that house," she said.

Carr said everything about the children's development would be damaged: "You don't exist outside of your relationship with others. perception and understanding of the world is created through making distinctions, so if you live like this how do you know things such as love and joy? All these people know is pain.

"They live in a one-dimensional world with their main experience being pain and fear. All other experiences are totally removed, including their personality."

Carr said the "'normal" world for the children is one in which they are "kicked around and abused".

" . they have now in a way been 'kidnapped' and taken to an 'alien' world where they have to learn a life that in a way will be even more frightening."

Remanded into custody at Modderbee Prison, the 36-year-old man - who professed his love for his children as police arrested him - is to appear in court on Wednesday for a bail hearing.

His children and wife, who are now with relatives, are to be placed in safehouses.

Prosecutor Leanie Hattingh, speaking to The Times outside court, said charges of attempted murder and defeating the ends of justice were being investigated.

House with many eyes

Cameras, their red lights blinking, ring the high brick walls at the front of the house. They are everywhere - in the trees, on the front gate, on the corners of the house and under the eaves - recording every movement.

They are connected to monitors in a room to which only one person has the key. This is the House of Horror - a double-storey six-bedroom facebrick home in Springs, on the East Rand .

The property is owned by a Pretoria businessman.

At least six families stay in units apart from the house.

The man allegedly held his five children prisoner there for 16 years, frequently beating, starving and torturing them.

A strange sickly sweet smell permeates the air, emerging from an open window of the house.

A large fluffy white teddy bear lies on a bedroom floor. There is an upturned mattress, clothes scattered across the room, a cupboard door smashed

A tenant, speaking on condition of anonymity, said nothing happened at the house without the husband's knowledge.

"His groundsmen and guards had to radio him every hour - saying where they were, what they were doing, who was coming to the house. Nothing could happen without him okaying it."

A tenant said: "What kids? I never saw any. Are you sure this is the right house?"

Said a neighbour: "There was never laughter. Not a sound. An occasional scream, but nothing sounding like children."