A child pornographer who was part of an international child pornography ring was sentenced to an effective eight years in prison.
Jan Hendrick le Roux, 66 was sentenced in the Wynberg Regional Court in the Western Cape on Wednesday.
Spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Eric Ntabalaziza says Le Roux distributed 2 950 images and even discussed child abduction and sexual abuse online.
He says Le Roux was arrested by an investigating officer from Belgium who went undercover as part of an international investigation.
Ntabalaziza says the officer arrested a Belgian national and saw that Le Roux was sharing images with him on the dark web, Gigatribe.
He says Le Roux argued that he was abused as a child and never received trauma counselling.
Le Roux admitted having the images, but argued that he was doing an investigation to see if the people sharing the images were a group of paedophiles like the ones who molested him.
State prosecutor Xolani Ncobo said Le Roux was addicted to child porn and his actions were not innocent as the material on his computer was gruesome.
