Paedo Beale watched for ‘hours’
DETAILS of the thousands of images found in a Plettenberg Bay computer engineer’s possession were revealed during sentencing in the Knysna Regional Court yesterday.
William Beale, 39, was arrested in January 2015 when police raided his home – the first South African caught as part of Operation Cloud 9.
The operation involved South African and Belgian police in a crackdown on an international child pornography ring. Some of the images found included the torture and murder of babies.
Beale had thousands of videos of violent assaults, as well the internet addresses of more than 300 alleged paedophiles.
Pornography
He pleaded guilty to nearly 19 000 charges of possession of child pornography.
Magistrate Eugenia Jacobs said due to the sensitive nature of the images, a “sample” of them were reviewd in her chambers. Psychologist Tjaart van der Walt has been called in mitigation of sentence.
Van der Walt said Beale suffered sexual, physical and psychological abuse as a child, and suffered from several disorders including paedophilia.
Research has shown that “hands-off online” paedophiles were less likely to re-offend or become “contact” criminals, he added.
Van der Walt said there has been no evidence Beale had groomed any child for abuse, and that his viewing of child pornography was like an addiction: “He admitted that he would often binge-watch for up to eight hours at a time.”
Van der Walt said there were programmes Beale could participate in for his behaviour. If Beale would undergo the same treatment, the outcome would be the same whether he was imprisoned or placed under correctional supervision, he added.
A correctional services report was also handed in as evidence yesterday, which suggested that Beale was a candidate for correctional supervision.
Prosecutor Gerda Marx said that there was no monitoring programme in place for Beale’s online activity. Correctional supervision only includes visits including to a convict’s home and work.
The report also indicated that Beale was living in a cottage on his brother’s property in Kimberley, and that he had contact with his brother’s two young children.
His family does not object to this.
The matter was postponed to October 4, for the continuation of sentencing, when the State is expected to cross-examine Van der Walt and call another expert witness.