High court dismisses child porn distributor's appeal against his sentence

Child pornography offender Clinton Calder has failed in his bid to appeal against his eight-year sentence imposed by the Wynberg regional court in 2021. 

The Western Cape High Court on Monday dismissed his appeal and confirmed his name will be entered into the National Register of Sex Offenders. 

Calder, who was diagnosed as having a paedophilic disorder by Col Kirsten Clark from the police investigative psychology section, was convicted on 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.

“His conviction follows from a written guilty plea explanation which the Wynberg regional court accepted,” National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said. 

The regional court sentenced Calder to 10 years’ imprisonment with two years suspended for five years.

Calder was arrested after a Belgian chief inspector assigned to investigate areas, online and offline, known for trading child abuse images 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,” Ntabazalila said. 

During arguments on April 26, Calder, 55, described his conduct as a moment of madness and said he 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 said such specialised facilities were not available in prison. 

The state called several witnesses to rebut the mitigating factors highlighted by Calder. They included an experienced nurse working at the hospital section of Pollsmoor Prison, who testified that other prisoners with similar medical conditions at the prison were successfully treated while incarcerated.

The state also argued a non-custodial sentence would reflect a lack of deterrence for the offences.

Western Cape director of public prosecutions Nicolete Bell applauded the decision of the court. 

“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,” Bell said. 

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