‘Baby porn’ accused granted bail

AN alleged paedophile could well be back in the community right now as he awaits trial.

The Pennington man is apparently terminally ill and was granted R1 000 bail. However, residents are still furious and have little sympathy.

Some people know who he is and others are viewing any young man with suspicion. However, he cannot be identified because of on-going investigations.

“This is just sick,” said one resident who did not want to be named. “There is no excuse for this behaviour.”

Earlier this month, the 22-year-old was arrested and his residence searched by an SAPS team, led by investigating officer, Warrant Officer Banks, accompanied by Warrant Officers Geldenhuis and Boshoff, Captain Swart and Sergeant Grobler.

This was confirmed by national police spokesman, Solomon Makgale and the Women and  Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA)

The arrest was the result of an international investigation into child pornography syndicates operating in the country.

A laptop containing thousands of child abuse images and videos was found.

Among the other items seized were a plastic child blow-up doll, five cellphones, two secure digital memory cards, 80 compact discs, two iPads, two desktop computers and two external hard drives.

Various costumes, dresses and panties were also found. The man’s grandmother, with whom he lived, has said that he liked to pretend to be a girl and dressed up as such.

“He admitted that viewing the images as well as his fetish for dressing up like a girl had become an addiction”, said Mr Makgale.

Following the terminally ill suspect’s arrest, he appeared in Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court where he was released on R1 000 bail, said Lieutenant-Colonel Heila Niemand of the Gauteng Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.

Local Twitter and Facebook users have expressed their anger at the court’s decision to grant bail. They are also calling for the man’s identity to be revealed.

“Keep your children and grandchildren locked up, people,” said a Facebook user. “Seems the justice system doesn’t really care whether this bloody monster continues to hurt little ones or not! Who the hell is this freak anyway. Name and shame the pig!”

“The young, unemployed man admitted to the possession and distribution of (baby 0-5 years) child abuse images,” said Miranda Friedmann, director of  WMACA.

“His user account profile was taken over by Chief Inspector Tim van Eester of the Belgium Antwerp Police, following the arrest of William Beale in January this year in Plettenberg Bay during a takedown operation in conjunction with the SAPS’s Sergeant Grobler, Lieutenant-Colonel Niemand and Chief Inspector van Eester.

“What we have seen is how committed this team is: The amount of work they have to do, the time that it has taken to investigate the suspects and the way they are going about it, we just feel that this is a positive move when it comes to child abuse material. We feel that this is the first step. In future we are hoping to see reform in our legislation,” she said.

To date nine arrests with connections to the international Cloud 9 Operation have been made in South Africa. The case against the Pennington man was postponed to November 10.