21 some of her experiences at the hands of the defendant. Eventually, seeing that the plaintiff was incapable of expressing herself or unwilling to do so, Jay suggested that she write her story down and they would meet again to talk things over. With difficulty the plaintiff followed the suggestion. She showed the statement to Ms Potgieter. Far from alienating her as the plaintiff had feared, it had the effect of drawing them closer together. The plaintiff was asked by her counsel ‘[On] the day you gave her what you had written for her to read whose fault did you think it was, what had happened between you and Mr Hoogenhout?’ To which she replied, ‘Mine’. Asked by the court why, she answered, ‘I sometimes until today still feel I must have done something wrong because why did he do these things to me? I don’t know why I think that and then I blame him for my wretched life, but then again I – it is quite confusing for me because I feel sorry for his wife, he did these things, it was painful and sometimes I think couldn’t I have done something that it wouldn’t have happened . . . Ek – miskien kon ek gesê het ek wil nie naweke gaan nie. Dit maal vandag nog in my kop. Miskien as ek vir my ma presies in detail vertel het. . . Toe Rita [Ms Potgieter] dit vir my gesê het sy is baie lief vir my het my antwoord gekom dat miskien is ek nie skuldig daaraan nie, miskien het ek nie – ek het nie skuld hieraan nie.’ Court: Kan ek dit anders stel, vandag as u hierso in die hof sit, dink u dat dit nog steeds u skuld is of nie? – ‘Nie meer nie.’ Court: Wanneer het u houding verander? – ‘1997’15. 15 ‘I – maybe I could have said I won’t go over the weekends. It is still going round in my head. Maybe if I had told my mother in detail . . . When Rita told me she loves me very much I answered that perhaps I wasn’t guilty, perhaps I didn’t – I’m not at fault’. Court: ‘Let me put it another way, as you sit here in court