UPDATE: Violent child porn suspect to appear in Alex court
ALEXANDRA - A suspect is to appear in the Alexandra Magistrates Court for possession of images which depicting children being sexually assaulted.
UPDATE: 9 July 2015, 9:45am – The court case has been postponed to 30 July 2015.
INITIAL REPORT: 8 July 2015, 10:30am – A suspect is to appear in the Alexandra Magistrates’ Court for possession of images which depict children being sexually assaulted.
The suspect, who was arrested in Midrand and is believed to be part of an international child pornography syndicate, will appear in court on 9 July. The accused is alleged to have distributed shocking footage of children being raped and tortured, and the murder of newborn babies.
After months of investigation by South Africa and Belgian police, the 39-year-old suspect was arrested in March this year and later released on R5 000 bail.
Other suspects said to be part of the syndicate have been identified in countries such as Belgium, United States of America, Pakistan, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, The Czech Republic, France and the United Kingdom.
Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) urged the government to implement harsher legislation to criminalise the production, distribution, dissemination, voluntary receipt and possession of child sexual abuse and exploitation images.
Germaine Vogel of WMACA said, “No image of the sexual exploitation of a child is just a harmless porn image. These are very serious crimes as each image is a crime scene with a brutalised victim.”
WMACA representatives will be at the court on the day.
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