Man pleads guilty to 18 644 child porn charges

A PLETTENBERG BAY man linked to an international baby pornography ring pleaded guilty to 18 644 charges of possession of child pornography in the Knysna Regional Court yesterday.

He also pleaded guilty to a single charge of possession of dagga.

The plea bargain entered into by William Beale, 38, comes more than two years after his arrest by international police during a raid of his seaside home in 2015.

The matter was postponed to April 18 for sentencing.

Beale was the first South African arrested as part of a cooperation between South African and Belgian police responsible for cracking a child pornography ring linked to a cyber meeting space for paedophiles.

Some of the images found included the torture and murder of babies that were just a few days old.

When Beale was arrested, police found sections of files containing thousands of videos and violent assaults as well internet addresses of more than 300 alleged paedophiles.

During court proceedings over the past two years, the state alleged that there were more than 179 000 images in question.

Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) founding director Miranda Friedmann said: “We hope that the sentence will be a very serious one.”

Knysna anti-child-abuse group Green Hearts spokeswoman Magriet Ferreira said they were pleased that the matter was coming to a conclusion.