Meet the cop who secured 6,548-year jail sentence for child sex offender

Dedicated police officer Capt Bez Bezuidenhout has secured the conviction and sentencing of two sexual predators, including a 6,548-year jail sentence for one of the child pornography offenders.

Marking the start of the 16 days of activism against violence against women and children campaign, the SAPS highlighted the achievements of Bezuidenhout who has more than 28 years’ experience solving gender-based violence-related crimes.

He also advises parents on how to monitor their children’s devices and online activity.

Bezuidenhout played a role in identifying 27 online child predators in the country as part of the serial and electronic investigations unit (SECI).

The unit is responsible for tracing and arresting serial rapists while cracking down on those involved in the possession, distribution and creation of child pornography.

Four of the 27 online predators have already been arrested in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal in the past three weeks.

But in October, the captain and his team succeeded in securing a hefty sentence for two online predators.

One of them was Mario Guitsi, 36, a computer programmer who lured boys online for sexual purposes.

Guitsi was handed a 6,548-year sentence for rape, creation of child pornography, possessing and downloading child pornography, causing a child to witness sexual acts and human trafficking.

The computer programmer had targeted and befriended boys aged between eight and ten to “feed his sexual desires” and perform sexual acts on the boys, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said.

“[Guitsi] was traced to Welkom and arrested by Capt Bezuidenhout and his team in August 2022. The team of detectives had been following up on information that alerted police to an online user who had been uploading child sexual assault material,” Mathe said. 

In the same month, Bezuidenhout’s investigations led to the conviction of a 60-year-old man for raping and performing sexual acts on his niece, 10.

The man was handed a 15-year sentence after being found guilty of creating child pornography with his niece. Mathe said the man would instruct his niece on what to do for the video and such evidence led him to plead guilty.

Bezuidenhout has however warned parents to monitor their children’s devices such as tablets and cellphones on a daily basis.

“Install parental software apps that will be able to block harmful content. Young children should not be in chat groups. Daily monitoring will ensure more children are saved from such predators. These predators even lure children through online computer games. Parents must be extra vigilant,” Bezuidenhout said.

TimesLIVE