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A 51-year-old alleged child pornographer from Gqeberha has been found guilty of flouting his bail conditions.
The suspect, who cannot be named to protect the identity of his children, allegedly exploited his twin daughters, who were eight years old at the time, by taking photographs of them in the bath in order to distribute naked images of them online.
During the 2016 investigation, police also found images of baby porn on his computer. In his submission on Thursday in aggravation of sentence for breaching the bail conditions, State Prosecutor Kenny van Biljon, noted that during the arrest of the suspect about 10 000 child porn images were found in his possession.
He was re-arrested on Monday and has been held at St Alban's since then.
Defence attorney, Danie Gouws, said in mitigation of sentence that the court should consider the man as a first offender, in spite of two convictions in 1997 and 1993 for the possession of cannabis and theft respectively for which he was fined and received a suspended sentence.
Gouws said these offences were committed a long time ago. He also asked the court to consider the man's not-guilty plea in the main case, which has been running for seven years and resumes on 8 June with a trial-within-a-trial.
He alluded to the current divorce proceedings between the man and his wife as a possible reason for his arrest for breaching bail conditions, while Van Biljon submitted that this complaint had not come from the wife but from an "informant."
When the accused was released on bail of R10 000 he had strict bail conditions which included that he stay at the same address until the case is finalized and not have contact with his twins directly or indirectly.
Meanwhile, the man's bail conditions regarding his visitation rights with his twin daughters, now 15, were amended twice in 2019, allowing him to see the girls for one hour a week, in a public place with their mother present. He was also not allowed to be on any social media accounts.
The man has since moved to another address without informing the Investigating officer and made contact with one of his children, without his wife's supervision.
He also has an active Facebook and Instagram account.
Magistrate Este Petzer will give her judgment on Friday morning.
He could be liable to a fine or face a prison sentence of one year.
This article has been updated with additional information.
