A former Eastern Cape teacher guilty of three counts of child pornography was given a nine-month suspended sentence by the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Neil Malherbe, who taught at Selborne and Graeme Colleges in East London and Grahamstown and at one time coached water polo at national level, lives at an Eastern Cape coastal settlement.
National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman for Mpumalanga, Monica Nyuswa, said that besides the suspended sentence magistrate Vanessa Joubert ruled that Malherbe’s name be added to the national sex offenders’ list.
He may also not work with children or youth.
Malherbe, who was the 2013 winner of the Crystal Kite Award for the Africa Region for a children’s book called The Magyar Conspiracy, a murder mystery featuring a water polo competition, studied education at Rhodes, where he also obtained his master’s degree in the subject.
He was the principal at Penryn Preparatory School near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga before his arrest in August 2013.
At the time, former South African Police Service spokesman Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale told the Daily Dispatch that Malherbe was arrested in an international investigation into a child porn ring after he allegedly ordered child porn online from Canada.
His arrest was part of an international probe, called Operation Spade. Numerous images on DVDs, laptops, hard drives and memory sticks were found in a raid on his home on August 15 2013, and in November last year Malherbe was found guilty of three of seven charges, one of them importing child pornography.
The guilty verdict was passed after the state provided evidence of video-footage and images and the testimony of witnesses.
In 2013, the Dispatch reported his arrest had been greeted with disbelief because he enjoyed an excellent reputation at the two Eastern Cape schools where he taught.
Yesterday Tony Botha, who lives about 300m from Malherbe’s beach-front home, said he was concerned for the safety of his young nephews and nieces who visited on weekends and holidays. “They have to walk past his house to get to the beach and I’m afraid he will take photos of them and put them on the internet,” said Botha.
Another resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she had eight grandchildren who visited her and feared for their safety when they went to the beach. “He got a slap on the wrist. I can’t believe he got such a light sentence.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
No jail for ex-teacher found guilty of child porn possession
Neil Malherbe, who taught at Selborne and Graeme Colleges in East London and Grahamstown and at one time coached water polo at national level, lives at an Eastern Cape coastal settlement.
National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman for Mpumalanga, Monica Nyuswa, said that besides the suspended sentence magistrate Vanessa Joubert ruled that Malherbe’s name be added to the national sex offenders’ list.
He may also not work with children or youth.
Malherbe, who was the 2013 winner of the Crystal Kite Award for the Africa Region for a children’s book called The Magyar Conspiracy, a murder mystery featuring a water polo competition, studied education at Rhodes, where he also obtained his master’s degree in the subject.
He was the principal at Penryn Preparatory School near Nelspruit in Mpumalanga before his arrest in August 2013.
At the time, former South African Police Service spokesman Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale told the Daily Dispatch that Malherbe was arrested in an international investigation into a child porn ring after he allegedly ordered child porn online from Canada.
His arrest was part of an international probe, called Operation Spade. Numerous images on DVDs, laptops, hard drives and memory sticks were found in a raid on his home on August 15 2013, and in November last year Malherbe was found guilty of three of seven charges, one of them importing child pornography.
The guilty verdict was passed after the state provided evidence of video-footage and images and the testimony of witnesses.
In 2013, the Dispatch reported his arrest had been greeted with disbelief because he enjoyed an excellent reputation at the two Eastern Cape schools where he taught.
Yesterday Tony Botha, who lives about 300m from Malherbe’s beach-front home, said he was concerned for the safety of his young nephews and nieces who visited on weekends and holidays. “They have to walk past his house to get to the beach and I’m afraid he will take photos of them and put them on the internet,” said Botha.
Another resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she had eight grandchildren who visited her and feared for their safety when they went to the beach. “He got a slap on the wrist. I can’t believe he got such a light sentence.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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