Port Elizabeth – A self confessed porn addict described to the Port Elizabeth Magistrate's Court how he "enjoyed" watching sexual explicit acts being performed on children for his own arousal but insisted that he had never touched a child inappropriately.
For the first time on Friday, 33-year-old Jayde Sheldon Bailey took to the stand to explain what he called a "sickness". He explained how he would use the internet late at night to access a file sharing programme called "gigatribe" where child pornography would be sent to and fro from one user to another.
"I went to the younger and younger sites, I knew it was wrong and I needed help. I despised it in the beginning but then I got attracted to it and then addicted to it over time," he told the court.
The father of 15-month-old twin daughters and his wife are alleged to have been part of an international child pornography ring that distributed footage of the rape, torture and murder of babies, including newborns.
Charges against the pair relate to the importing, possession and distribution of films or publications which contain depictions or descriptions which encourage or promote child pornography or the sexual exploitation of children.
The case, which is sensitive in nature, had an investigating team in Johannesburg working together with the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Belgian police.
Bailey who has pleaded guilty to the charges against him said that he started watching porn on the internet as far back as 2005.
"It started with watching celebrities, then models and then the younger. It just happened I don't know how it happened," he said.
State Advocate Jason Thysse put it to Bailey that he felt no remorse and instead just felt sorry for himself subsequent to his arrest last year. "It's actually sickening people are repulsed by it," said Thysse.
The case was postponed until March 9 for sentencing. -African News Agency (ANA)