Sick torture in a suburban bedroom

THIS week Ina Bonnette came face to face with her monster - the man to whom she once professed her love.

In a case that has horrified the nation, the soft-spoken 42-year-old showed steely determination as she relived the horror of being gang-raped, tortured and mutilated while her 19-year-old son, Conrad, was murdered in the next room.

The rapes and murder were allegedly instigated and perpetrated by her estranged husband, Johan Kotze, 51.

The sordid tale unfolding in the High Court in Pretoria had journalists, the court stenographer and even defence lawyers in tears as the details of the January 3 attacks were laid bare.

The petite brunette sat upright during proceedings. She never used the back rest and kept to the edge of her chair - hanging on every word.

At times, when it looked liked it was too much to bear, Bonnette looked towards the public gallery, where a handful of her friends and family sat.

Kotze, dubbed the "Modimolle Monster", is alleged to have masterminded the attacks, co-opting his fellow accused, Andries Sithole, Pieta Mohlane and Frans Mphaka, to repeatedly rape and mutilate his wife.

He is also accused of shooting Conrad several times while his mother was bound and gagged in her bedroom next door.

Bonnette told the court she heard Conrad's repeated cries for mercy before she heard gunshots.

Each time her son' s name was mentioned in court her eyes welled up and she struggled to maintain her composure.

Bonnette said on Tuesday that Kotze had told her, as he cut off her nipples with pliers and other instruments: "Ek is lief vir jou, ounooi (I love you, old girl)."

Disturbing details emerged of how Kotze stuck a needle into Bonnette's breast, making her bleed, and poured a liquid substance over her private parts and violated her with a vibrator.

Kotze stared at Bonnette with a blank look as she gave evidence, nervously taking his glasses off and putting them on again.

He also spent a lot of time consulting with his advocate, Bernard Bantjes, made notes in a black folder, and sipped from a bottle of water every now and then.

Each time Bantjes posed a question to Bonnette, he said: "It is my instruction to ask you ..."

He put it to Bonnette that his client could remember "hurting her nipple" with pliers and "slowly and uncertainly" pushing a needle into her breast - while claiming at the same time he never intended to hurt her.

Many observers throughout the week shook their heads in disbelief, cried and found solace in strangers seated next to them, wondering how Bonnette had lived to tell her tale.

Jan van Rooyen, who is representing Andries Sithole, called Kotze an "emotional bully" who wanted to control Bonnette's life.

The court heard that Kotze had accused her of cheating on him and once yelled at her: "Jy maak my uit as a idioot. (You're making an idiot out of me)".

The court heard that Bonnette screamed at the top of her lungs before being bound and gagged, after which she was raped and mutilated by the four men.

Kotze allegedly barked orders at his three co-accused before the attack telling them to "get ready" and then to "climb off" Bonnette.

He also allegedly instructed them to take her clothes off - and referred to them as "k****rs".

Van Rooyen, in his cross-examination of Bonnette, said: "Is it correct that he wanted to control you, know your whereabouts ... and wanted to know how much contact you had with your son?"

Looking straight ahead and avoiding eye contact with Kotze, Bonnette replied in barely a whisper: "Yes."

Every time Bonnette referred to the man who allegedly orchestrated the attack , she called him "Kotze".

Sithole, Mohlane and Mphaka, meanwhile, maintained that they were threatened with death by Kotze if they did not do as they were told during the assault.

Under questioning by Van Rooyen, Bonnette said that, as she lay on the bed tied up and helpless, she asked them "with my eyes for help" - to no avail.

The case is continuing.