Update

GARDEN ROUTE NEWS - The Plettenberg Bay computer engineer who was sentenced to 15 years behind bars in 2017 after pleading guilty to 18 644 charges of possession of child pornography, successfully appealed his sentence last week.

William Beale's (40) sentence was reduced to 10 years in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday 2 May.

Beale was the first South African to be arrested as part of Operation Cloud 9, an operation involving South African and Belgian police. He was part of an international child pornography network that was linked to a cyber meeting space for paedophiles whose fetishes seem to be the sexual abuse of babies and young children. Some of the images found included the torture and murder of babies as young as a few days old.

When Beale was arrested police found sections of files containing thousands of videos and violent assaults as well as internet addresses of more than 300 alleged paedophiles.

The appeal
Advocate Paul van der Berg for Beale submitted that during sentencing in the Thembalethu Regional court in 2017, the magistrate did not show any mercy and the period of imprisonment imposed was likened to be revengeful. 

State Advocate Evadne Kortje disagreed. She argued the sentence was not disproportionate because, in addition to the images, Beale also had a vast number of videos, depicting child rapes and exposure of children's private parts, in his collection.

William Beale before sentencing in Thembalethu in 2017.

Some images depicted infants and toddlers being abused. Kortje said Beale was not a random internet user who stumbled upon images of child pornography but belonged to a network of people who found such acts intriguing.

Joanne Barrett, spokesperson for Women and Men against Child Abuse (WMACA), said that they were appalled by the judgement.

"We at WMACA vehemently opposed any consideration of appeal for this child monster. We are highly upset that the judge showed 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 fuelling the market of child sexual abuse. Harsher sentences need to be given to deter them from downloading," said Barrett.

During trial in Thembalethu two years ago, Beale stated that he knew he should feel bad about children being abused for child pornography purposes, but he didn't.

William Beale before sentencing in Thembalethu in 2017.