Porn pastor wants his laptop back
|Published
Kent Locke Kent Locke
The Porn Pastor’s lawyer is trying to get the paedophile’s laptop back from SAPS so that he can use it as a studying aid while serving 15 years in Drakenstein prison.
But child protection police are reluctant to release it from their evidence locker without proper guidance from the National Prosecuting Authority, as it was used in the commission of the child porn offences.
And although Kent Locke, 29, was successfully convicted, those involved in his prosecution say there remains a big question mark, over what happened to the images that led to his conviction.
Locke assured investigators he deleted all the naked images he had solicited from his schoolboy congregants - up to 60 victims, according to the Child Protection Unit - while masquerading as a teenage girl in a WhatsApp sex scam.
But the police could find no concrete proof of that.
“Until we have that”, said one investigator, “those images could cause serious secondary trauma to his victims”.
Last October, Locke pleaded guilty in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court to 47 child sex abuse charges listed in a 43-page plea bargain which he eventually signed after almost a year of playing legal poker with sexual offences prosecutors.
He was subsequently sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, with five years suspended, for offences against seven of his boy victims, aged 12-17.
The charges include encouraging, enabling, instructing or persuading a child to perform a sexual act; compelled self sexual assault; sexual grooming of children; using a child for child pornography; failure to immediately report a sexual offence against a child; exposing or displaying or causing the exposure or display of child pornography or pornography to a child; and possession of child pornography.
Locke’s lawyer Ed Morgan declined to comment on his client’s request.
Wynberg sexual offences prosecutor advocate Jarrod Seethal, who put Locke behind bars, was aware of the defence’s appeal.
“Mr Morgan did inform me that his client would like his laptop back from SAPS due the finalisation of the matter. However, I will need to inquire from the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) if it is indeed true that he is allowed access to a laptop and the internet, in light of his conviction.
“I will reserve my opinion on the matter until I have the facts before me and have had an opportunity to liaise with the DCS,” Seethal said.
Locke would have to apply for laptop use said Delekile Klaas, DCS regional commissioner for the Western Cape. “And his application will only be considered if he is a registered student and the laptop is checked and shown to only have programmes provided by the registered academic institution.
“He will not for instance be allowed to have email or be able to google.”
Klaas said Locke would have to show significant progress in his rehabilitation programmes.
“We find that doesn’t often happen in the first year. A prisoner might attend rehabilitation programmes, but that doesn’t mean he co-operates or starts to genuinely rehabilitate.
“Once the offender shows progress, we allow them privileges like laptops for study(ing) purposes.”