A 27-year-old father from the Cape Winelands has been sent to prison for 35 years because he made and sold child p0rn0graphy using his own kids. His name isn't being shared to protect the victims. He was found guilty of many terrible crimes, including r@pe, child traff!cking, and having and sharing child p0rn0graphy.
This man used his young daughters, aged six and four, and his one-year-old son to create these awful videos and pictures. He then sold them online to make money. The police said he did this while he was unemployed and at home with the children, even though he was married to their mother since 2018.
A spokesperson for the police said he chose to make child p0rn0graphy for money, because he could get R18 for every dollar. He joined an online group after someone let him in, and then he started talking to the person who ran the group.
He used a messaging app to share images in real-time. He admitted to making and sharing s3xually abusive content of his own children, earning between $5 and $10 for each sale.
His crimes were discovered during a secret operation by the U.S. FBI. The information from the FBI in Washington was shared with South African police, which led to his arrest on May 30, 2023. His phone, which had proof of his crimes, was taken away.
He was found guilty of many charges: two counts of selling people for online exploitation, four counts of r@pe, three counts of making money from child p0rn0graphy, a huge 629 counts of having child p0rn0graphy, three counts of illegally sharing it, and three counts of child abuse.
The prosecutor, Evadne Kortje, said that he completely failed in his duty as a parent. She said he "abused his power as a parent and the trust his three small children had in him." She added that he helped in the s3xual abuse of children whose innocence should have been protected.
The judge, Gangadu, who gave the sentence, warned about how modern technology is being used more and more to harm children, and he stressed how serious these crimes are.
He will spend 35 years in prison, and he has to serve at least two-thirds of his sentence before he can be considered for release. He's also been put on a national list of s3xual offenders and can never work with children or own a gun.
