Life sentence for child rapist
Richard Mantu
7 February 2005
Home Affairs Deputy Minister Malusi Gigaba, entrusted with overseeing South Africa's new law against child pornography, has welcomed the landmark sentencing of a Pietermaritzburg paedophile to life in prison.
Judge Jan Combrink on Friday sentenced 47-year-old former civil engineer Allan Keith Pyle to life for abducting, raping and indecently assaulting three children.
Gigaba said the judgment would allow society to "break the morass of silence on matters of abuse" on children.
"This decisive judgment marks a paradigm shift from the lenient sentences meted out to pedophiles in our country", Gigaba said. "It also augurs well for the recent amendment on the legislation dealing with child pornography in South Africa."
Pyle lured and raped an eight-year-old girl together with her two siblings, whom he filmed on video, four years ago.
Pyle, who worked as civil engineer in Pietermaritzburg, moved to New Zealand in 1999, where he
confessed to sexually molesting two children known to him. However, through a plea-bargaining deal, he was sentenced to four years in prison.
It was while on a visit to South Africa in 2000 that videotapes of him sexually molesting three children he picked up at random surfaced.
New Zealand police discovered the videotapes and sent them to the South African authorities, who presented them as evidence against Pyle. He was deported back to South Africa from New Zealand in December.
Judge Combrink said with the evidence presented before him, he could not find any reason to be lenient and not sentence Pyle to life imprisonment.
As part of efforts to eradicate child pornography, Gigaba's office, together with the Film and Publication Board, will convene National Conference Against Child Pornography.
The conference will seek to give impetus to the process of crafting a sustained public education campaign against child pornography, including soliciting ideas
about interventions needed to protect children.
Source: BuaNews
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