Child porn: more details on guilty plea and sentence

Update

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - Kayden Elliot (26), the Mossel Bay man who was charged with possessing 217 images of child pornography, pleaded guilty to the charges on Wednesday, 22 January, in the Mossel Bay Regional Court.

Elliot was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, with five of those years suspended, provided he is not charged with similar crimes.

His details will also be entered into the national sex offenders registry and recorded in the national child protection register.

Elliot has been in police custody since his arrest on 2 February last year.

The court heard during the reading of the plea agreement that the child abuse depicted in the images found in his possession included sexual exploitation, sexual violation and sexual penetration of children.

The court also heard that Elliot did not once ask for help before being arrested and that he would never have disclosed his crimes if it weren't for his arrest.

Investigation

In January 2023 the office of Serial and Electronic Crimes Investigations of the police received intelligence from Homeland Security Investigations, from the USA Embassy in Pretoria, relating to South African citizens in a chat group on an instant messaging app called Viber.

The group, called "Catrines Paganos" was used to view and share online child sexual abuse material. User names and telephone numbers of the offenders were supplied.

The court heard that the South African Police and Homeland Security Investigations from the USA Embassy launched a national operation called Bad Vibes. Elliot, who was using the username "Charles Darwin" on the group, was successfully linked with the crime through his cellphone number and username.

Search warrants were obtained and on 15 January last year, the police searched Elliot's home in Da Nova and seized devices.

Images of child pornography were dis-covered on these devices and he was then arrested.

Plea agreement
A plea agreement was made between the state and Elliot through his legal representative and Elliot admitted his guilt to the charge.

In the plea agreement, Elliot confirmed that he had had access to certain websites and that during the period 2022 to 2024, he viewed and downloaded images of child pornography.

Children suffering
The court heard that the general aggravating factors of this case are that the child material that Elliot had was evident of the serious sexual abuse that children all over the world are suffering.

State prosecutor, Advocate Gerda Marx read out from the plea agreement in court that these children and numerous children to come are being subjected to "the most serious, horrific, gruesome acts imaginably to mankind".

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