JACQUES de Jager (39), who was linked to an international paedophile ring, was sentenced last Thursday in the Port Shepstone Regional Court for the crimes of sexual assault of a five-year-old child and the creation and possession of child pornography.
Further investigations by the Herald revealed that De Jager, who worked as a branch manager at a well-known stationery chain store since 2007, was a member of the committee of Child Welfare, Margate between August 2013 and February 2015.
Chairman of the committee, Pam Brown, said that committee members have no contact with children and all appointments of staff and committee are subject to police clearance.
Regional Prosecutor Sohana Moodley and De Jager, represented by his attorney Maria Pieterse, negotiated and entered into a plea agreement.
De Jager appeared before Regional Magistrate Johann Bester and was handed the following sentence:
* Sexual assault of a five-year-old child (count one). Twelve years’ imprisonment, six years suspended for a period of five years on condition that De Jager is not convicted of rape, compelled rape, sexual assault, compelled self-sexual assault or of any sexual offence against a child in the period of suspension;
* Creation of child pornography: Sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, to run concurrently with count one.
* Possession of child pornography: Sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, to run concurrently with count one.
He was declared unfit to possess a firearm and will have his name recorded on a sexual offenders list.
Magistrate Bester added that, in future, De Jager would not be employed in any capacity that brings him in contact with children, for example: a school, hostel, orphanage or a children’s home. He said that, in future, when De Jager applied for employment he would have to divulge to his employer being recorded on the sexual offender list.
De Jager was arrested in July, 2015 after police raided his Uvongo home, acting on a tip-off from the world’s largest police organisation, Interpol.
At his home, police seized almost 1 000 pornographic video clips involving children. These included:
* 17 video clips containing children aged 12 months and younger used in sexual abuse acts;
* 145 video clips containing children between two and 11 years involved in sexual activity;
* 796 video clips containing boys between 12 and 17 years involved in sexual conduct.
The case was investigated by Warrant Officers Peter Motsoeneng and Johan Boshoff, of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) provincial head office in Gauteng.
De Jager’s activities came to light after Greek police arrested one of their nationals in 2013. A total of 32 men were arrested worldwide, De Jager was the last outstanding man to be arrested from South Africa.
In the plea agreement, De Jager, a first time offender, admitted to having downloaded and possessed images of child pornography from the internet on his personal computer and laptop on various occasions during 2015.
Sometime during the year he asked a work colleague if he would allow his five-year-old son to spend time at his house.
“I had a swimming pool and I knew the child would enjoy swimming there… On one occasion the child swam naked because he did not have swimming trunks. I took naked photos of the child and stored these photos on the hard drive of the computer. These photos aroused me sexually. I admit that, by taking naked photos of the child, I was in fact creating child pornography,” the plea agreement read.
The child spent two days with him and, on one occasion, De Jager confessed to exposing his penis to the child while he was urinating in the toilet. “I asked him to touch my penis. He did so. I also touched his penis. These acts aroused me sexually.
I knew at the time that what I was doing was an unlawful sexual violation of the child. – Jacques de Jager
He further wrote that he is remorseful for his actions and has sought professional help from a private psychologist.
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