Durban – A Waterfall man allegedly planned to drug and rape at least one child before he was arrested on child pornography-related charges last week.
“We have evidence of the accused communicating, via e-mail, with one of the other accused, requesting information on how to drug children and perform sexual acts with them,” public prosecutor Jerome Gnanapragas told the court on Thursday, when the 35-year-old man appeared in the Durban’s Sexual Offences Court alongside his two co- accused.
Gnanapragas said the man – who already stands accused of the possession, creation and distribution of child pornography – could now also face charges of conspiracy to commit rape.
He said the State was aware of a possible victim and was in the process of ascertaining whether there were more.
One of the man’s co-accused, a 29-year-old wheel alignment technician from Pinetown, was Thursday granted bail of R3500.
He was ordered to report to the Pinetown Police Station twice weekly, surrender his travel documents and not to apply for any new travel documents until the matter was finalised.
But the Waterfall man and a third accused, a 47 year old from the Bluff, will apply for bail only next week.
Gnanapragas said the State still had to add the new charges to the Waterfall man’s charge sheet.
It was also still in the process of verifying an additional address for the Bluff man, who is also facing charges of raping, sexually exploiting and sexually assaulting a neighbour’s six-year-old child as well as using her for child pornography.
It was crucial that an alternative address was verified because of the accused’s home being close to the victim’s.
The three were arrested after the Pinetown man visited a website that was being monitored by US Homeland Security.
Police subsequently raided his home, where they discovered child pornography, and he then revealed his two co- accuseds' involvement.
On raiding the Bluff man’s home, police discovered illicit images of one of his neighbour’s children.