In an extraordinary defence, an East London attorney charged with rape, sexual assault and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm has delivered a testimony in which he argues he and his wife, the victim, practised consensual sado-masochistic sex.
In his bail testimony on Friday, before a gallery filled with curious prosecutors, the lawyer, surrounded by a legal team of four, took to the stand to ascribe the injuries to his wife of 10 years to their fetish for what he termed “BDSM”.
He said it was a modern style of role-playing during erotic and passionate love-making involving “bondage, discipline, dominance and sadomasochistic submission (BDSM), and other related interpersonal dynamics.
He said when he asked his wife if she wanted “to be punished” in the bedroom “in a sexual manner”, she had said “yes”.
This drew gasps of shock from the prosecutors in the gallery.
When a file of photographs showing the wife’s injuries as a result of their fetish was shown, magistrate Lionel Mitten’s eyes visibly bulged.
The lawyer was arrested and has been in custody since Tuesday.
He is not being named to protect the identity of his wife.
When asked by his counsel, advocate Mike Maseti, whether his wife allowed him to assault her as a fulfilment of their sexual passions, he said: “I asked her if she thought she deserved to be punished and she said yes.
“I did not assault her. I hit her with her consent when we were intoxicated.
“When she said ‘that is enough’, I stopped.”
He went on to say their role-playing lasted for a few hours during the early hours of Mother’s Day.
After showing the photos of the wife’s injuries to the court, a baffled prosecutor Nontuthuzelo Sondlaba asked him if the bruises were consistent with normal love-making.
The wife was reported to have injuries on her breasts, back and private parts.
“Did you see these injuries when you woke up the next day? Why would she deserve to be punished like this?” Sondlaba asked.
At this, Maseti jumped up and said the couple had simply indulged their fetish.
“This is an act of passion done when people are making love. It is a new invention,” he said.
Sondlaba said normal sex could not have given the woman the kind of injuries she had.
“Even if this is a new invention, we all saw the pictures. Your wife opened a case against you because she is scared of you,” she argued.
The wife had previously opened an assault case against him, but it was withdrawn because she had allegedly attacked him and he had allegedly retaliated in self-defence.Sondlaba said the state’s case would be that after a night of being violated, the wife had left their home for her mother’s house on Sunday.She pressed charges the following Tuesday.Sondlaba argued that their marriage had been unhealthy, to which the lawyer said they had occasional fights like any other couple.However he went on to say his wife was violent towards him.“To go through our history of violence in our relationship would take two days,” he said.He said they had agreed on a divorce last year, and during this period a new girlfriend had moved in with him, but the couple later changed their minds and cancelled the divorce, choosing instead to give their marriage another try.The bail application resumes on Monday.nonsindisoq@dispatch.co.za..