Pretoria - Police have arrested another suspect who was allegedly in possession of child pornography under the police’s operation Cloud 9 which is investigating the South African wing of a paedophile ring involving suspects from across the world.
The 20-year-old university student from Gauteng was arrested in Melville as part of the operation which is headed up by the Family Violence, Child Protection, and Sexual Offences Unit.
These paedophile rings make use of software that enables them to share images of child porn with each other.
The young suspect, according to police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo, was identified through the account of another suspect who was arrested in Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape early this year.
“The suspect, who is a computer science student at a Johannesburg university, has already appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Wednesday and was granted R5000 bail,” said Naidoo.
His case was postponed to 4 December 2015.
“Until yesterday, only adults have been arrested in connection with this heinous crime. However, it is evident that this crime has no boundaries and we want to warn the people of South Africa not to allow themselves to be caught in this vicious web,” said Naidoo, who warned other suspects involved in the ring that police were hot on their heels.
At the suspect's place of residence the police seized a laptop, a cellphone, seven USBs and one external hard drive. Allegedly, 1000 child porn images were found on his external hard drive.
His arrest brings to seven the total the number of people arrested by the Cloud 9 investigation team.
The previous six arrests were in Plettenberg Bay, Port Elizabeth, Midrand, Pennington and Scottburgh. Criminal proceedings in all of these cases are still continuing.
Police Commissioner General Riah Phiyega has described child porn as a repulsive crime. She said it was a massive problem which was quietly stealing children’s innocence and emotionally scarring them for life. - SAnews.gov.za
