Clinton Calder will remain behind bars after his appeal against his eight-year imprisonment sentence at the Western Cape High Court failed.
Child pornography offender Clinton Calder will remain behind bars after his appeal against his eight-year imprisonment sentence at the Western Cape High Court failed.
Calder was diagnosed with a paedophilic disorder by Colonel Kirsten Clark from the Investigative Psychology Section of the SAPS.
He faced 3 195 counts of possession of child pornography, a count of distributing child pornography, a count of importation of pornography and 19 counts of creation of child pornography.
Calder’s name is also to be entered into the National Register for Sex Offenders and he was declared unfit to possess a firearm.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said Calder was sentenced to 10 years’ direct imprisonment with two years suspended for a period of five years with conditions, effectively sentencing him to eight years’ direct imprisonment at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court.
His conviction follows a written guilty plea explanation which the Wynberg Regional Court accepted.
Ntabazalila said: “Calder was arrested after a Belgian chief inspector who was assigned to investigate areas online and off-line known for trading child abuse images, discussing child abuse, or luring children for contact offences noticed that some of the internet traffic on the child pornography file-sharing platform came via South Africa. The investigation found that members of the online network engaged in peer-to-peer file sharing of child pornography. This information was shared with the relevant South African authorities and the ensuing investigation led to Calder’s location, a search and seizure of his laptop which contained child pornography and his subsequent arrest. During the period 23 September 2014 and 7 June 2015, Calder had been operating under the pseudonym name on the Gigatribe platform.”
Calder applied for condonation for the late filing of his application for leave to appeal.
He successfully obtained leave to appeal his sentence.
Calder, appearing in person, applied for bail pending the appeal, but senior State advocate Evadne Kortje successfully opposed this, and the court refused bail pending appeal as a custodial sentence would be the just sentence option on appeal even if the higher court found the term of the initial sentence to be inappropriate, the NPA said.
“During arguments on 26 April 2024, the 55-year-old described his conduct as a moment of madness, he had been doing crazy things, sought psychological treatment and was suffering from depression. He further argued for a non-custodial sentence due to his clean criminal record, and personal circumstances and that he needed private medical and psychological treatment for his medical condition and sexual affliction. He further submitted that such specialised facilities are not available in prison. He also emphasised that his pulmonary conditions which he believed would be best treated outside prison because of the excessive smoking habits of other prisoners, was a factor that the regional magistrate failed to adequately consider in sentencing him,” said Ntabazalila.
Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions advocate Nicolette Bell applauded the decision of the court, further confirming the organisation’s commitment to the fight against the abuse of children.
“All cases of online sexual exploitation encroach on the rights to human dignity and privacy of the victims as enshrined in our Constitution, hence the NPA aggressively prosecutes them. This judgment provides some justice and removes online child sexual offenders from accessing their devices and the internet, thereby creating a safer community for our young ones,” said Bell.
Cape Times