Wearing a rosary in the dock‚ child porn accused strikes plea deal

A car salesman from the East Rand has pleaded guilty to a raft of charges relating to the distribution of child pornography.

The Boksburg man appeared in the South Gauteng High Court on Wednesday morning.

Judge Cassim Moosa said he had received the official plea and sentence agreement and would assess the documents.

“A long drawn out process has been shortened by the sterling effort of the state and defence counsel‚” Moosa said.

He said the court needed to carefully look at the document and see if the proposed sentence was fair and befitting of the interests of justice.

“Justice must not only seen to be done but must be done‚” he added.

The lean man stood in the dock‚ wearing a black short-sleeved shirt‚ a large wooden rosary dangling around his neck.

When he was arrested last year‚ police had alleged that he had taken advantage of his girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter by taking nude pictures of her.

At the time‚ police also said dozens of the child’s pictures had been shared online and had been distributed internationally.

His arrest came after his activities were detected by United States authorities.

Laptops‚ external hard drives‚ cellphones‚ memory cards‚ a mini spy camera and a digital audio player were among some of the items which were seized during his arrest in the East Rand.

These are believed to have played an integral part in his case.

A crowd dressed in black t-shirts from Women and Men Against Child Abuse sat in the gallery amid the proceedings.

In a statement‚ the group said: “The accused child abuser preyed on single mothers with children.”