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Child pornographer sentenced 15 years to prison

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The police Family, Child and Sexual Offences (FCS) unit has hailed a 15 year prison sentence handed down to child pornographer, William Beale, as a landmark ruling.

Magistrate Eugenia Jacobs has sentenced Beale in the Thembalethu Regional Court in George in the Southern Cape. It’s the most severe sentence ever handed down for the possession of child pornography in this country.

Beale was the first South African arrested as part of an international crackdown on a global child pornography ring. Beale was in possession of over 180 000 images, but following a plea bargain, this was reduced to around 19 000 for purposes of the case.

Lieutenant Colonel Heila Niemand from the police’s FCS unit says, “It’s an example not just for SA but for the world. To say we’re not going to tolerate any predator that is going to sit down and view and download images of child abuse in SA. Sitting in court you get goose bumps because from the moment when I received the phone call informing me there was a perpetrator in SA viewing horrendous child abuse images, at that stage you just wanted to jump out of your chair and find the guy.”

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