A south coast woman wept while her 39-year-old son pled guilty in the Port Shepstone Regional Court on Tuesday to molesting his five-year-old daughter and snapping a gallery of lurid pictures of the assault.

The man‚ a professional diver‚ had been indicted on charges of possessing child pornography‚ the sexual assault of his daughter and using a child to produce child porn.

The man cannot be named to protect the identities of his two daughters‚ who left the country with their mother shortly after he was arrested in June last year.

 He was arrested after officers from the police’s electronic crimes investigation unit linked him to a paedophile who was arrested in the United Kingdom.

 Police discovered 277 explicit images of children‚ aged between 3 and 15 years old‚ on the man’s computer and on his cellphone during the swoop. A further 25 explicit images of his own children‚ as well as seven images of him touching one of them inappropriately were found.

 In his plea explanation‚ read into the court record‚ the man detailed the sexual perversion that led to his arrest.

 He described how he had touched his daughter‚ revealing that he had never “penetrated” her.

 “Although I admit that during the period outlined in the charge sheet that I touched my child on her private parts on the outside of her genital area. I never inserted any part of my body‚ in particular my fingers‚ into her vaginal cavity.

 “I plead that when I touched her I saw my actions were unlawful but nevertheless proceeded. She was not harmed physically at all…no physical injuries were found on her genitalia‚” he said.

 In his statement he said that he had been diagnosed with four recognised mental disorders‚ specifically paedophilia‚ substance abuse disorder‚ anti-social personality disorder and dependent personality disorder.

 He said that it “diminished” his ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions.