Breaking News Update Video
GARDEN ROUTE NEWS & VIDEO - 39-year-old William Beale, a computer engineer from Plettenberg Bay, was just sentenced to 15 years behind bars for the possession of child pornography.
Sentencing took place at the Thembalethu Regional Court in George.
“Imprisonment is the only option for sentencing," said magistrate Eugenia Jacobs.
"It will send a clear message that these crimes are unacceptable and will not be tolerated. It will also deter the accused from repeating these crimes and deter others from committing them.”
Beale was the first South African to have been arrested as part of Operation Cloud 9 which involved cooperation between South African and Belgian police.
The operation was responsible for cracking down on an international child pornography ring.
Some of the images found included the torture and murder of babies as young as only a few days old.
Beale pleaded guilty to just short of 19 000 counts of possession of child pornography.
Watch a video interview with Lieutenant Colonel Heila Niemand below.
Watch a video interview with Miranda Jordan-Friedmann, director of Women and Men Against Child Abuse below.
Read the full story in Thursday's Knysna-Plett Herald, and online.
Click here for previous articles:
- Baby porn case: Sentencing update
- Baby porn trial: Images haunt prosecutor
- Baby porn case update
- 'I know I should feel bad, but I don't'
- Update: Plett baby porn case
- Baby porn case back in court
- Update: horrific porn sex trial
- Baby porn man sentencing setback
- Plett baby porn case: Delay in sentencing
- Plett baby pornographer faces sentence
- Guilty plea to 19 000 porn cases
- Baby porn: Man pleads guilty to 18644 charges
- Plea bargaining afresh in baby porn case
- Baby porn case update
- Baby porn case postponed again
- Plett baby 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
ARTICLE, PHOTO & VIDEO: YOLANDÉ STANDER, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD CORRESPONDENT
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