Johannesburg – A sentence handed to a paedophile father who used his little children to produce pornographic material for sale, has been received with outrage.
*Jacobus (who cannot be named in order to protect his minor children), 41, was yesterday sentenced in the South Gauteng High Court sitting in Palmridge to eight years in jail.
Rights organisation Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) said the sentence was “disappointing and shocking” because the level of atrocities Jacobus committed warranted the matter to be treated as a sexual assault, rape and child violation by the court.
“In this digital age, laws around child pornography from both the criminal aspect, the film and publication board and other governing bodies should be reviewed to protect children.
“Lockdown catapulted children into the digital realm that was already unsafe for them and offered zero protection,” said Ngaa Murombedzi, advocacy manager for WMACA.
“This sentence shows our laws are not progressive to protect children on digital platforms, where now even education and socialisation takes place, and this judgment shows how child victims are unseen in the legislation to protect South Africa as a whole, and protect children at the very least,” Murombedzi added.
Passing sentence, acting Judge Daniel Mogotsi described Jacobus’s actions as “heinous, despicable and the vilest form of abuse and exploitation”.
Judge Mogotsi jailed Jacobus to an effective eight years’ imprisonment for using his children, one of whom was aged 6, to produce 280 images of child pornography for financial gain.
Between 2015 and July 2018, Jacobus also forced his then minor nephew, who was born in March 2001, to perform acts on his wife, such as getting the boy to touch, fondle and hold his aunt’s naked breasts while they lay in bed together.
Another act conducted by the “despicable” Jacobus would be to get his daughter, who was born January 2009 and was aged 6 to 9 during the events, to be undressed by her mother and maternal aunt “prior to taking a shower together”.
Jacobus would take a video of the lewd act to sell to local and international perverts.
Video of his biological son, who was 10 in 2017, would also be captured of the boy fondling his mother’s breasts and vagina.
The sale of the child porn was done in an elaborate scam of advertising the content on a dating site, where prospective perverts would email interest in the images and videos, and his daughter’s FNB account for the transfer of money.
“(Jacobus’s) business in peddling of adult and child pornography was not only locally based but international, and he was earning foreign currency,” read the charge sheet’s summary of substantial facts.
It was the use of his child’s bank account that angered Judge Mogotsi.
Jacobus, who pleaded guilty to all seven counts and said he produced and sold the porn to assist his family financially, had also argued in mitigation he should receive a suspended two-year sentence because he was remorseful, had been co-operative with police and wanted to provide for his children.
But Judge Mogotsi would have none of it, asserting the paedophile abused his children “on the basis of supply and demand”, and that Jacobus only stopped after he was arrested in July 2018, after being flagged by US authorities for being part of a sophisticated child pornography ring.
“The picture of his love of his children is something that he says, but he doesn’t mean it, If you love your kids, if you love your family, you will do everything to protect them,” Judge Mogotsi said.
“Even though (Jacobus) has children, that does not excuse the heinous crimes that he committed. He abused his own wife by getting her involved in child porn. He doesn’t want to take responsibility for his actions. How can you be providing security when you’re abusing the very people you claim to be helping?” Judge Mogotsi asked.
Jacobus was unmoved throughout the sentencing, and hugged his parents before being led to his minimum eight-year sentence.
The Star