PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Peaceful protest action against child pornography is in the pipeline for tomorrow Friday, January 27, as the Plettenberg Bay man accused of having links to an international baby pornography network is due to take his place in the dock two years after his dramatic arrest.
The 38-year-old accused, a computer engineer who cannot be named until he has pleaded, was the first South African arrested as part of a Cloud 9 joint operation between South African and Belgian police tasked to crack down on a child pornography ring.
This network is said to be linked to a cyber meeting space for paedophiles whose fetishes seem to be the sexual abuse of babies. Some of the images found included the torture and murder of babies as young as only a few days old.
The Plett man was arrested on January 13, 2015 when international police raided his seaside home and allegedly found sections of files containing thousands of images and videos of violent assaults as well as internet addresses of more than 300 other alleged paedophiles.
The matter has since been plagued by issues and delays including challenges with formulating the charge sheet, which recently brought the matter to the brink of being struck off the court roll.
Anti-child abuse group Green Hearts chairperson Janet Harding said they would gathering at the Knysna Regional Court on Friday to once again take a stand against child pornography. The Green Hearts was established in response to this case and the subsequent sex crimes against children reported on the Garden Route.
“This is the culmination of two years' investigation and delays since the accused's arrest in his family's home. This was the first arrest in the Cloud 9 initiative and has resulted in many further arrests, not only in South Africa but all over the world. The depth of this depravity knows no boundaries and involves the abuse of children – some so young as to still have their umbilical cords attached. We are hopeful for an appropriate sentence but must trust the integrity of our legal system,” Harding said.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks of the charge sheet formulation was listing and describing each of the 179 000 images in question.
During an appearance in October, the man’s lawyer Carl Jeppe asked for the matter to be struck off the roll, claiming the State had had ample time to prepare the charge sheet. At the time, magistrate Eugenia Jacobs however allowed a final postponement.
When the man appeared again on November 30, the court was informed that major headway had been made, in that more than 107 000 images had already been described, and the matter was therefore postponed to Friday.
Click here for previous articles:
- Protest against child pornography planned
- Plett 'child porn' case postponed
- Baby porn case: Another postponement
- Activists decry latest child porn case delay
- Horror porn case put on hold again
- Plett child porn case: latest deferment baffles
- 'Baby porn' case?: Plea bargain rejected
- 'Baby porn' case: Plea expected
- Baby porn case postponed again
- Plett 'porn case' postponed again
ARTICLE & PHOTO: YOLANDé STANDER, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD CORRESPONDENT
'We bring you the latest Plettenberg Bay, Garden Route news'
