International porn case involving 4-year-old to be held in camera

THE CASE of a Boksburg man charged with manufacturing, possession and distributing child pornography will be heard behind closed doors to protect the alleged victim.

Henk Strydom, senior prosecutor and head of the National Prosecuting Authority in the Boksburg and Vosloorus magistrate’s courts, told journalists on Friday that the case would be heard in camera.

He said the identity of the accused would not be made public, in accordance with the Child Sexual Offences Act.

According to national police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo, the 39-year-old man had taken naked pictures of his girlfriend’s four-year-old daughter.

“The suspect allegedly took as many as 50 pictures of the victim in naked poses. He then advertised them online while the child’s mother was oblivious of what her daughter was being subjected to by her boyfriend,” Naidoo said.

The pictures were distrib- uted to users as far as the US.

Naidoo added that the accused’s online adventures were initially detected by the US’s Department of Homeland Security, who tipped off the specialised team working for the SA Police Service’s Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit.

“The specialised team then followed up on the information from their US colleagues and proceeded to the suspect’s place of work in Boksburg, where he was arrested.”

The man’s home was also raided, and three laptops, external hard drives, cellphones, memory cards, a DVD player, a PlayStation console and a mini spy-camera were confiscated.

He is the 11th person to be arrested in a local and international crackdown on child pornography, known as Operation Cloud Nine.

Over the past few months, the police have been investigating the South African wing of the paedophile ring, which has members affiliated to it worldwide.

The Cloud Nine operation is part of a joint crackdown by the SAPS and the Belgian police.

Last month, a 20-year-old Joburg-based university student was arrested in Melville for possession of child pornography.

He was identified through the account of another suspect who was arrested in Plettenberg Bay early this year.

The student was released on R5 000 bail and the case was postponed to December 4.

Also last month, a 47-yearold man was arrested in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, for alleged possession of thousands of images of child pornography.

In March, a Port Elizabeth couple were arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography. In the same month, two men from Midrand and Grahamstown were arrested for the same offence.

In January, a 37-year-old computer engineer from Plettenberg Bay was arrested after Belgian police profiled a paedophile on a social media website.

So far, 49 people from across the world have been arrested in the Cloud Nine operation.