Krugersdorp man facing string of child porn charges seeks plea deal with State

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Johannesburg - A Krugersdorp man facing a string of child porn charges at the high court in Joburg intends to enter into a plea with the State. Jacobus Johannes Stacey, 40, was facing charges of possession of child porn, creating child porn and importing child porn. Stacey made a brief appearance in the high court on Monday. It heard that the State and defence lawyers had reached an agreement to postpone the trial. Prosecutor Matshiliso Moleko indicated that the parties would possibly work out a plea bargaining deal.

“The matter is postponed to March 16 by agreement for possible plea,” Moleko said.

Stacey’s lawyer, P Visagie, confirmed that he reached an agreement with the State on postponement for a possible plea.

Stacey was arrested in Krugersdorp last year. Police had gathered evidence indicating that he possessed pornographic pictures and footage of girls under the age of 18 on his computer.

He also allegedly produced or assisted in producing child-porn videos. Stacey also stood accused of distributing child porn to paedophiles outside of South Africa.

A plea deal could result in most of the evidence against Stacey not being heard in an open court. He would be the second man to be sentenced for child porn crimes by the court in two years.

Robert de Vries, from Joburg, was sentenced in 2018 to 15 years after being found guilty of 107 child porn charges.

Last month a 62-year-old married man who is also the owner of a crèche in Roodepoort appear in court after he was allegedly found in possession of explicit child pornography.

The pensioner was part of a group of five people who were arrested in the past few days in an operation called "Moonlight", where several personal computers, hard drives, flash drives, tablets and cellphones which contain explicit child pornography were seized.

The ages of the children in the materials were believed to range between 11 and 16.

The Star