‘Springs Monster’ couple’s trial starts in high court

He denied guilt on the rest of the charges including rape, abuse, and possession and dealing in drugs, in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.

His wife also pleaded not guilty to 20 charges, including 10 of child abuse and neglect, failing to send two of her children to school, attempting to murder her 11-year-old son and withholding him from the police, knowing that he was seriously injured.

The two appeared before Judge Eben Jordaan.

Court reporter for Caxton’s The Citizen newspaper, Ilse de Lange, who was in court, reports the woman said in her plea explanation she was afraid of her husband as she was also a victim of his physical, sexual and mental abuse and could not protect her children against him.

The second-hand car dealer’s wife pleaded not guilty to being in possession of or dealing in drugs or forcing her 16-year-old daughter to be a drug dealer.

De Lange reports the woman insisted her husband was the ‘boss’ in the house and had the final decision about everything – even about when their children went to school or what they ate.

In the husband’s plea explanation, he admitted that he had once, two months prior to his arrest, touched his 16-year-old daughter’s private parts, but he claimed he thought she was not his child at the time, because his wife told him that another man had fathered her.

However, he denied reportedly raping and sexually molesting her for years.

The father, dubbed the ‘Springs Monster’, admitted that he assaulted his 11-year- old son once, but he denied injuring him or attempting to murder him.

He admitted that he hid his son from the police because he was scared of what might happen to him “if the police saw his son’s injuries”.

He claimed he never knew it was unlawful not to send his children to school, as he only has Standard Five (Grade Seven) and his mother took him out of school when he was in Standard Six (Grade Eight).

Although the father denied he had abused and neglected his children, he admitted he had a duty to take care of them, protect and provide them with food and medical treatment.

The Springs police arrested the father in May 2014, after his 11-year-old-son escaped and sought help from the neighbours

According to the charge sheet, the parents allegedly used violence when they fetched the son and took him home, where his father allegedly assaulted his son by punching and slapping him.

It is alleged the mother did nothing to stop the assault.

The police raided the house after the neighbours reported the incident, where they came across four children, allegedly in a severely neglected state.

The father arrived at the house at the time, and allegedly pretended to be his wife’s brother in an attempt to prevent the police from finding his 11-year-old son.

His son was found in Warden, several days later, with the father’s sister.

The State alleges the accused had physically abused their children by slapping and punching them, hitting them with objects and also allegedly repeatedly restraining them with handcuffs or rope.

They were allegedly burnt, shocked, knocked down, thrown, dropped, sprayed with pepper spray and shot with projectiles from gas pistols.

The State alleges the accused had failed to provide for their children’s physical, emotional, social and intellectual needs, that none of them ever received medical care and that two of the children never attended school.

The children allegedly never received proper food and the younger children were underfed, while some of the children’s teeth were rotten.

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• Springs Monster case to continue in 2016
• ‘Springs Monster’ still in Weskoppies Hospital
• ‘Springs monster’ heads to Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital
• Mother arrested in Springs Monster case
• Mother back in court
• Mother’s case postponed
• Mother arrested, case not on roll