Pretoria - Police in Gauteng have cracked a case involving alleged child porn with links to Belgium.
The police arrested four adults on charges of possession and distribution of child porn. Three of the suspects were arrested in Hercules in Pretoria while another was arrested in Cape Town.
The Cape Town suspect, a 47-year-old man who works as a broker, is currently in custody at the Fish Hoek Police Station pending his first appearance in the Simonstown Magistrate's Court this morning, police said on Wednesday.
The Pretoria suspects, two men and a woman, whose ages range from 41 to 56, appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Wednesday and their case has been postponed to Friday for their bail applications.
They have all been remanded in custody.
“These latest arrests, like others before, have a global connection to them,” Police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said.
“All of these suspects' alleged shenanigans were brought to the attention of the South African Police Service's (SAPS) FCS units [Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit] after police authorities in Antwerp, Belgium, arrested one of their residents for production, possession and facilitation of child pornographic images that depict minors or where minors are being used for these purposes.”
This suspect was found having 219 contacts in his user accounts in October 2014.
Further investigations by the Belgian authorities pointed them to South Africa.
Naidoo said this was not surprising as considering the fact that time and again it has been found that consumers of porn share images of child abuse with each other wherever they are in the world through a software.
More arrests are expected in the near future.
The National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Riah Phiyega, said she was encouraged by the commitment shown by her team as they crisscross the country in unmasking these suspects and bringing them to account.
“The fact that we arrested people for something that first emerged in faraway places is one of the reasons that we as the SAPS must continue to work with others from anywhere in the world because of the global nature of crime." - SAnews.gov.za
