Back Print this page
Legalbrief   |   your legal news hub Saturday 20 April 2024

Paedophile doesn't 'feel bad' about child porn activities

‘I know I should feel bad, but I don’t.’ These were the words of William Beale (39), a Plettenberg Bay man who pleaded guilty to nearly 19 000 charges of possession of child pornography, about his feelings towards children being abused for pornography purposes. Colonel Bronwynn Stollarz, with the police investigative psychology unit, took the stand during sentencing proceedings in the Knysna Regional Court and testified these were his words during a consultation, says a Weekend Argus report. Beale was the first South African to have been arrested as part of Operation Cloud 9, which involved co-operation between South African and Belgian police responsible for cracking down on an international child pornography ring linked to a cyber meeting space for paedophiles whose fetishes seem to be the sexual abuse of babies. Some of the images found included the torture and murder of babies as young as only a few days old. When Beale was arrested police found sections of files containing thousands of videos and violent assaults as well Internet addresses of more than 300 alleged paedophiles. He pleaded guilty to about 19 000 charges of possession of child pornography in February following his arrest by international police in January 2015. He was subsequently released on R10 000 bail and relocated to Kimberley to live with his brother. Stollarz testified on Friday that she had come to the conclusion that Beale suffered from paraphilia (abnormal sexual desires). The matter was postponed to 23 October for heads of argument to be prepared before sentencing.