Child porn offender gives up fight

Westering man withdraws appeal, thanks officer for ‘changing his life’ and begins five-year jail term

ACHILD porn distributor threw in the towel on his appeal yesterday, and after thanking the investigating officer for “changing his life”, the Westering man handed himself over at the Port Elizabeth Regional Court to start serving his five-year jail term.

Jayde Sheldon Bailey’s petite 22-year-old friend, also from Westering, stood by his side and sobbed after she, too, indicated that she would plead guilty to her alleged role in the offences.

State advocate Jason Thysse told the court that the prosecution was in the process of negotiating a plea and sentence agreement with the woman’s defence attorney, Paul Roelofse.

The case against the woman, who cannot be named until she formally pleads to the charge of the possession of child pornography, was postponed to May 3 for the agreement to be concluded. Her bail was extended. Bailey, 35, a married father of two, was convicted under the Films and Publications Act last month for possessing and distributing horrific images of unknown children being raped online.

Some of the children were so young, their umbilical cords were still attached.

On March 9, Bailey was sentenced to an effective five years in prison, but after spending just 15 minutes in the holding cell, he indicated that he wanted to appeal against the sanction.

Bailey’s lawyer had hoped for a non-custodial sentence.

While leave to appeal was reluctantly granted by magistrate Johan Herselman, perhaps it was his parting words of “let’s hope for your sake the appeal court doesn’t increase your sentence”, that resonated with Bailey in the 14 days that followed.

Yesterday, he tearfully turned to Sergeant Dalene Grobler and thanked her for changing his life by having him criminally charged.

He claims he has not exposed himself to child pornography since his arrest and that he now wants professional help.

In contrast to the black suit he wore at his earlier appearances, a nervous-looking Bailey was dressed down in jeans and a baggy jersey.

From the court, he was escorted to St Albans Prison.

Bailey was arrested together with the woman in March 2015, after police uncovered two hard drives containing 560 sexually explicit images and 401 videos of child pornography at his home.

A separation of trials was ordered after the woman initially indicated that she wanted to plead not guilty.