The lobby group Women and Men Against Child Abuse has slammed a Western Cape High Court decision to reduce the sentence of Plettenberg Bay computer engineer, William Beale, in a child pornography case.
Beale's 15-year sentence imposed by the Thembalethu Regional Court in George was reduced to 10 years on appeal on Friday.
He was convicted in 2017 on more than 18 thousand counts of being in the possession of child pornography and was arrested as part of a global police operation.
Commenting on the judgment, WMACA's Joanne Barrett, said they are highly upset that the Judge had shown some leniency.
"The South African Judiciary system needs to wake up. The courts need to realise that these are real children and that by downloading these images and videos, they are fueling the market of child sexual abuse," she charged.
"One must remember, these are images of young babies and children who were sadistically sexually abused and murdered. Those children who survived this horrific ordeal had no mercy shown to them and there is nothing anyone can do to take this harrowing nightmare away, ever," Barrett said.
(Pic: Supplied)
