Child porn ring case sends shockwaves across the country
Community still in shock about a primary school principals arrest in regards to child pornography, plus police reveal more information on the national investigation.

NELSPRUIT – Society is still reeling with shock at the arrest of a primary school principal in connection with the alleged possession of child pornography. Police revealed yesterday that as many as 50 more people were being investigated regarding an apparent syndicate – the tentacles are rapidly spreading internationally.
National police spokesman Gen Solomon Makgale revealed the information to Lowvelder on Thursday morning. This after the paper was the first to report that the first suspect, a local primary school principal (46), had been arrested and appeared in the White River Magistrate’s Court last week. Since then, five more people have been apprehended.
Prosecutor Ms Elbe Basson said the man was apparently found in possession of DVDs containing alleged child pornography images. She said police had also seized his laptops. He was released on bail of R 1000 and is set to appear in court again on September 19.
According to Makgale, they have obtained and executed just over 30 search warrants. “We have arrested six people to date. There are many others we are likely to arrest because we are still waiting for the outcome of the assessment on which our cyber crime unit is working. We should have feedback within the next two weeks.”
Makgale confirmed that four of those arrested were 46 years old, one is 49 and another 63. He said they were all suspected to have been involved in an international child pornography syndicate. The other suspects are known to be a teacher, a retired school principal, an IT expert and a legal company owner and a businessman.
Makgale confirmed that they were tipped off by Interpol about the syndicate which was apparently operating and manufacturing the pornography from Canada and then distributing the material worldwide.
He said the national detective head, Lt Gen Vinesh Munoo was in charge of the investigation which included the Gauteng Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit and cybercrime investigators. He said they were still determining whether the children were international or if South African children had also been used.
Makgale said the police had to date seized 672 DVDs containing images of child porn and adult pornographic images, nine cellphones, six computer towers, two cameras, 22 memory cards and sticks, eight laptops, two tablets, 39 external hard drives and 25 books containing images of child porn.
This has allegedly come about because Canadian police in Atlantic had arrested suspects in a child-porn syndicate two months ago. International media had reported that police had seized 43 computers and millions of images in Operation Snapshot 2, which targeted “high-risk offenders who collect, possess and/or distribute child sexual exploitation material online”. The Canadian police then apparently discovered the addresses of hundreds of alleged paedophiles worldwide.
Child Welfare White River operations manager Mr Johan Bosch said research recently conducted by Advaita Govender indicated that there was no profile of children who were vulnerable to this form of abuse as it could happen to any child. He said the same research study indicated that offender profiles were also not reliable. “In some cases they may fit the criteria for paedophilia (a small minority of perpetrators). Even these may mask their offending behaviour as they are likely to have appropriate adult sexual relationships, hold jobs and otherwise blend into society.”
“One characteristic is that they often take a great interest in children – but then so do many others who are not perpetrators,” Bosch concluded.