Violent child porn suspect to appear in court
A man is to appear in the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court, north of Johannesburg, for the possession of images which depict children being sexually assaulted.
The suspect, who was arrested in Midrand and is believed to be part of an international child pornography syndicate, will appear in court on Thursday, 9 July, Alex News reported.
The accused is alleged to have distributed shocking footage of children being raped and tortured, and the murder of newborn babies.
After months of investigation by South African and Belgian police, the 39-year-old suspect was arrested in March this year and later released on R5 000 bail.
Other suspects said to be part of the syndicate have been identified in countries such as Belgium, United States of America, Pakistan, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, The Czech Republic, France and the United Kingdom.
Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) urged the government to implement harsher legislation to criminalise the production, distribution, dissemination, voluntary receipt and possession of child sexual abuse and exploitation images.
“No image of the sexual exploitation of a child is just a harmless porn image. These are very serious crimes as each image is a crime scene with a brutalised victim,” Germaine Vogel of WMACA said.
Last month, a man appeared in the Regional Court in Knysna, Western Cape, for the alleged possession and distribution of child pornography images.
The man, William Beale, 37, was arrested on January 13, 2015, and appeared in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrates’ Court the next day where he was released on R10 000 bail.
He was one of 41 men arrested for child pornography in South Africa, since the launch of the special investigation team last year.
The case was postponed to August 14, 2015, to allow time for copies of the docket and the charge sheet to be given to the defence attorney.
– Caxton News Service
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