Kotze’s marriage was ‘holy’
|Published
18/4/2013 Johan Kotze at his trial in the Pretoria High Court. Picture: Etienne 18/4/2013 Johan Kotze at his trial in the Pretoria High Court. Picture: Etienne
Pretoria -So-called “Modimolle monster” Johan Kotze believed his marriage was holy, the High Court in Pretoria heard on Friday afternoon.
Clinical psychologist Tertia Spangenberg told the court Kotze believed his sexual relationship and marriage to Ina Bonnette was sacred.
“He described it in very polite terms when referring to the sexual relationship with his wife.”
This was why, Spangenberg said, when Bonnette presented him with the couple's vibrator during an argument on January 3, 2012 it upset him so much. Kotze testified that Bonnette threw it on a table and told him to use it on his next wife.
“His moral structure was attacked,” Spangenberg said.
“It is a total violation of how moral he is.”
This high morality was characteristic in someone with a narcissistic personality disorder, which she found Kotze had.
Spangenberg said Kotze became dissociated after this argument.
“There the dissociation really loosened.”
Kotze is accused of orchestrating the gang-rape of his former wife and murdering his stepson Conrad, 19, in his rented home in Modimolle on January 3, 2012. Bonnette was still married to Kotze, but lived in her own flat at the time.
Andries Sithole, Pieta Mohlane, and Frans Mphaka are also accused of kidnapping, assaulting, repeatedly raping, and attempting to murder Bonnette that day.
Spangenberg read her report on Kotze into the court record. She first assessed him in October 2012 at the Pretoria Maximum Prison. The interview lasted four hours. Following her assessments she found Kotze was not accountable for his actions.
“I am of the opinion that Mr Kotze was not accountable for the alleged actions of which he stands accused,” she said.
“My opinion is based on a plea of non-pathological criminal incapacity.”
She said Kotze was obsessed with Bonnette. When he saw her with another man on New Year's Eve 2011 it caused trauma, which led to stress disorder.
“It is my opinion that the combination of Mr Kotze's narcissistic personality disorder, superimposed on traumatic psychological injuries, combined with an unmanaged long-standing major depression and untreated and unresolved acute stress disorder, resulted in a state of psychological dissociation during his alleged criminal acts.”
She said Kotze told her how he and Bonnette reconciled their troubled marriage and were planning to move back in together. He had pinned all his hopes and life's meaning on this.
“For him this is a life-threatening situation.”
She told the court the parts of the attack Kotze said he forgot were consistent throughout her assessments.
“He was very frustrated about aspects of the incidents he could not remember.”
Spangenberg told the court he could not relate to the fact that Conrad Bonnette was dead.
“I cannot kill Conrad,” she quoted Kotze saying.
She said he never referred to Conrad's death in the past tense.
“I would never be able to kill Conrad. I cannot shoot Conrad.”
She said this was consistent in every interview. Spangenberg told the court the fact that Kotze left all the evidence of his crimes behind proved he was not thinking rationally.
“The person doesn't only leave all the evidence, but he also leaves a living witness behind.” She said this indicated irrationality and dissociation.
Spangenberg said Kotze was born out of wedlock and adopted. His adoptive mother died shortly after. His father remarried, but Kotze never felt his stepmother really accepted him. She said his stepsisters confirmed Kotze's need for approval and admiration in his younger days.
“This history is typical in the development of narcissistic personality disorder.”
Spangenberg said Kotze remembered cutting off Bonnette's nipple and that he stuck a needle into her breast. When he saw blood he came to his senses. Thereafter he felt confused again.
She said it was noteworthy that Kotze became more confused as the incident progressed.
“It is not uncommon that individuals, who commit violent acts, will often be severely traumatised by their own acts. In an already dissociated state, this trauma would cause further dissociation.”
The matter was postponed until Monday to allow the State and the other defense teams time to consult and prepare. - Sapa