Children are easily lured by sexual predators on the internet. file image
A 66-YEAR-old man has been sentenced to eight years in prison by the Wynberg Regional Court for distributing nearly 3,000 child porn images after he was busted as part of an international sting.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said Jan Hendrick le Roux was convicted on charges of illegal possession and illegal distribution of 2,950 child pornographic images and sentenced to eight years imprisonment for each of the charges.
The successful prosecution came after State prosecutor Xolani Ncobo proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was part of an international child pornography network which not only shared child pornographic images but discussed child abduction and child sexual abuse.
“In his defence, Le Roux claimed he was sexually abused as a child and never received any trauma counselling. He admitted having the images after importing them from the dark web, Gigatribe, but wanted to see if the people sharing the images were a group of paedophiles like the people who molested him when he was young,” said Ntabazalila.
He further argued that users used pseudonyms, and there was no way the accused would have known who they were. In the long period the accused used the website, he never alerted the police. The State prosecutor argued that the accused was addicted to child porn and his actions were not innocent with pure intentions but had intention to possess and import the material. The material was gruesome and showed the person possessing it had terrible intentions for children.
The State also submitted evidence that the accused was part of an international child pornography network. He was arrested after Belgian police arrested their national, who shared child pornographic material with the accused using a peer-to-peer network.
Ntabazalila explained the Belgian investigating officer took over the IP address of the man they arrested and went undercover to trace other IP addresses.
“Le Roux’s IP address was one of those traced to South Africa. Further investigation confirmed that members of the network not only shared child pornographic images, but they also discussed abducting and sexual abuse of children.The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently and declared him unfit to possess a firearm.”
Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, advocate Nicolette Bell, welcomed the sentence.
Cape Argus
Related Topics: