A Cape Winelands father created child pornography using his minor daughters and infant son for financial gain. The court sentenced him to 35 years in prison.
The court found the 27-year-old man guilty of multiple charges. These include trafficking in persons, rape, creating and benefiting from child pornography, possessing and distributing pornographic material, and child abuse.
The state withheld the man’s name to protect the identity of his daughters aged six and four and son aged one.
How he exploited his children
The man married the mother of his children in March 2018. He stayed home and cared for them because he was unemployed.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said “He subscribed to a social media application with instant messaging where one can transmit and receive messages, photos, and videos. Users can communicate privately with other users or in groups. The social media platform users can send photographs taken within the application. Which indicates to other users a picture was taken in real time and not imported from a camera roll.”
“He decided to create child pornography for financial gain. As the conversion rate at the time was R18 to the dollar. He connected with the group after the administrative user approved his access to the group, and he started to communicate with the administrative user.”
Ntabazalila said he made pornographic content of his biological children and admitted to selling an “unknown amount of child pornography to unknown users for $5 (R88.9) to $10 (R177.8).”
FBI Operation Leads to Arrest
An undercover FBI task force officer from the Washington field office was part of the FBI child exploitation and human trafficking task force.
The officer shared information about the man’s activities with South African police. Police then arrested him on 30 May 2023 and confiscated his cellphone.
Court and Prosecutor’s Response
Senior state advocate Evadne Kortje finalised the plea and sentencing agreement. She said the accused sexually exploited children whose innocence should have been protected and preserved at all costs.
“He communicated and joined the social media application to connect with individuals interested in child pornography. He downloaded child pornography from other unknown collectors and other hands-on child sexual abuse offenders. Then he abused his parental privilege and the trust relationship he had towards his three small children. Regional court magistrate Gangadu emphasised the inescapable reality of the increasing prevalence of the abuse of modern technology to exploit our children,” said Ntabazalila.
Sentence and Restrictions
The Paarl Regional Court sentenced the man to 35 years of direct imprisonment and ordered him to serve two-thirds of the sentence before he becomes eligible for parole.
The court will enter his name into the national register for sexual offenders. The court declared him unfit to work with children or to possess a firearm.
How can communities and authorities work together to protect children from online predators?
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