Cape Town, South Africa - THE State is likely to go ahead with the prosecution of a 19- year-old Stilbaai woman who is facing rape and child pornography charges despite her co-accused committing suicide in prison at the weekend.
Police said yesterday that Allen Harmony, 37, was found hanged by a piece of cloth from a shower tap in a bathroom in the George prison on Saturday after a duty warder noticed that he was not in his cell bed.
Harmony and the young woman – who cannot be named until she has entered a plea in court – faced charges of rape, indecent acts involving minors and the production of child pornography.
This followed their arrest late last year when police found two minors and a massive amount of explicit child pornography in a Stilbaai farmhouse.
The pair were allegedly linked to a paedophile and child pornography cult in the southern Cape. They were both being held in custody and had appeared in the Riversdale magistrate’s court again on Tuesday last week when the case was postponed to June 2.
The woman had earlier admitted in court that she was an accomplice to rape and indecent assault involving minors and was involved in producing and possessing child pornography.
Two young victims – aged 11 and 14 at the time – were found in the farmhouse in December last year where they were allegedly featured in child pornographic material produced by both suspects. Other children who appeared in the material were as young as nine.
The prosecutor in the case, Jacques Fivas, said yesterday that the State would be looking into the issue of how it would proceed with the prosecution of the woman accused in the wake of Harmony’s death.
“But at this stage I don’t think there would be any problem and in all likelihood the prosecution will go ahead,” said Fivas.
Police had previously said the case against the pair was extremely strong due to the large amount of child pornography which was seized during their investigations in Stilbaai.
Police said they were linked to a cult called the “Trilogy Alliance” and that there was a strong possibility there were more child victims of paedophiles connected to it.