Africa-Press – South-Africa. Child pornography is becoming increasingly common in South Africa – and approximately 150 000 images of explicit child content were seized from people in possession of it, with the intent to also create and distribute.
This was revealed by Lieutenant-Colonel Heila Niemand, who on Tuesday was testifying in aggravation of sentence in the matter of Kevin Mulligan in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.
The 69-year-old man was convicted of 186 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of distributing child pornography.
In her testimony, Niemand said police had received countless leads of South Africans possessing, distributing or creating child pornography.
The leads are received on a daily basis and, at times, police recover a high volume – as much as 150 000 images from these perpetrators, Niemand said.
In 2010, a joint operation – called Cloud Nine – was conducted by SAPS in collaboration with the Belgian police.
The operation, according to Niemand, focused on exposing a child pornography distribution ring operating in South Africa.
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Mulligan was among the 12 South Africans arrested in the operation, said Niemand.
One man was arrested and handed a 15-year jail sentence after being convicted for being in possession of child pornography, she said. He, however, appealed and his sentence was reduced to 10 years in jail.
Another person Niemand mentioned in court was a 49-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to being in possession and distributing over 48 000 images of child pornography. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Another individual, from Krugersdorp, aged 40, was found in possession of about 23 000 images and was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
According to Nieman, the number of people taking part in such crimes is alarming.
“There is a close link between human trafficking and child pornography,” said Niemand.
“Some of these children will be used for sexual exploitation by other perpetrators in the country.”
She said the daunting part is that tracing the perpetrators was always hard – and harder still was identifying the victims in the pictures.
“Some of them are never even found,” said Niemand.
Arguments in the case will be held on Friday.
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