| 2024/01/23 |
Media Statement
WESTERN CAPE - A man who posed as a teenager to lure underage girls to a chat group where child pornography was distributed and shared is amongst three Child Online Sexual predators that have been arrested in a joint operation by the SAPS Serial and Electronic Crime Investigations (SECI) unit and the USA Department of Homelands Security in the past week. This brings to total the number of Child Online Sexual Predators that have been arrested since November to seven. The other four were arrested in November last year. Three were arrested in Gauteng and one in KwaZulu-Natal. These arrests form part of an international operation to trace manufacturers, users, and distributors of child pornography. The three suspects were arrested in Worcester, Kraaifontein and Mitchell’s Plain. A 53-year-old man from Worcester was the first to be arrested on Wednesday, 17 January 2024. He has so far been found with 95 000 images and 6000 videos of child pornography. He faces a charge of accessing, distributing and possession of child pornography. The second suspect, a 40-year-old man was arrested in Kraaifontein on Thursday, 18 January 2024. In his possession, he was found with more than 149 000 pictures of child pornography as well as more than 5000 videos. He was found in possession of two unlicensed firearms and various calibre of ammunition, as well as 9 snakes of which three did not have a permit. He is facing charges of possession of illegal firearms and ammunition, possession, distribution and accessing of child pornography. A 32-year-old man from Mitchell’s Plan was the third suspect to be arrested on Friday, 19th January 2024. He was found to be chatting and luring underage girls on chat group where nude pictures where exchanged. All suspects appeared before various courts such as Worcester, Kraaifontein and Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court where their cases were postponed for further investigation. This operation would not have been a successful without the following role players, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of WC, NPA, Cape Nature, and SPCA.
Below are a few tips for parents: ▶️Monitor the devices and social media accounts of your children to ensure they don’t fall prey to such crimes. ▶️Install parental control software and apps that can identify and block harmful content in chats, forms and other internet communication tools. ▶️ Advise children not to respond to messages or emails from strangers. ▶️ Never upload sexually suggestive images of yourself to the internet. ▶️ Never reveal personal information about yourself, including where you stay or which school you go to, to an online friend. ▶️Never agree to meet a stranger in private.
▶️ Inform an adult or call 0860010111 to report any incident that makes you feel uncomfortable.
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