Father ran house of horror

HE came across as "a gentleman with impeccable manners" who thought nothing of lending a helping hand to tenants.

But the facade a 36-year-old East Rand used car salesman and father of five built up over the years shattered yesterday when he appeared in the Springs Magistrate's Court.

He is accused of holding his wife and five children prisoner inside their home. The children – two boys and three girls aged two, five, seven, 11 and 16 – have never attended school and are believed to have never been out of the house.

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

Now being held in prison pending a bail hearing next week, he is facing 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 containing porn were found in the house.

The world the man lived in – which included 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," the neighbour said.

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

No one knows how long they 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 also lives on the grounds of the extensive property.

Another said she had seen a boy's face at a window once, but when she asked her "gentleman landlord", she was 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. I cannot believe they say he is this thing, that he was living a double life."

Clinical psychologist Dr Leonard Carr said "evil is not a good enough explanation" for what had allegedly happened.

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

Forensic psychologist Dr 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 said the devastation caused to the children – who are believed to have been sexually molested – would be huge.

"There is no overnight remedy. It is a long and arduous process with the older children facing the toughest battles," De Wet said. "The teenagers have been robbed of their childhood.

"They have allegedly been tortured their entire lives since birth. The teenagers' context of life is what happened to them inside that house."

Carr said everything about the children's development would be damaged.

"All they know is pain. They live in a one dimensional world with their main experience being pain and fear.

"In a horrible twist of irony they have now in a way been 'kidnapped' and taken to an 'alien' world where they have to learn a life which in a way will be even more frightening". - Graeme Hosken