Durban - A 39-year-old Port Shepstone man linked to an international paedophile ring pleaded guilty to sexual assault and the possession and creation of child pornography in the Port Shepstone Magistrate’s Court.
The plea followed the man’s arrest in August after members of the police National Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) raided his home, acting on a tip-off from the world’s largest police organisation, Interpol.
He is accused of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old boy and grooming him for pornographic material.
At his home, police discovered almost 1 000 items of pornographic material. These included:
* 786 video clips of boys between the ages of 12 and 17 involved in sexual conduct.
* 17 video clips of children aged 12 months and younger in sexual abuse acts.
* 145 video clips of children between the ages of 2 and 11 involved in sexual activity.
National police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said the suspect’s activities came to light after Greek police arrested one of their nationals in 2013.
“The Greek suspect was using something called the Giga Tribe application to distribute child porn images. Through this application they were able to get their hands on the IP addresses of the users, who were found to be from 32 countries, one of which was South Africa,” said Naidoo.
The information was shared with the local police and further investigations led to the arrest of the man.
“(Evidence) was taken from the suspect’s house during the arrest and handed to experts in Pretoria for downloading and further investigations.
“Later, information was received to the effect that the suspect had child pornography on his computer.
“They have found numerous pictures and videos on his personal laptop that he was downloading from the internet,” said Naidoo.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s spokeswoman Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said the man faced three counts of sexual assault on a 5-year-old child for using a child to create child pornography.
Another count is for being in possession of child pornography.
“The accused has pleaded guilty to all counts and he will be sentenced on April 21,” said Ramkisson-Kara.
A source close to the investigation, who would not be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the man was linked to a ring of paedophiles operating in South Africa.
He also said the abused child was someone “close to (the paedophile)”.
Police are planning to crack down hard on paedophiles in the coming months.
Sunday Tribune