• A female pastor from Worcester was arrested for allegedly taking sexually explicit pictures of children.
• She allegedly photographed children during a sleepover at her and her husband’s house.
• The police said she and her husband had already done jail time for raping children.

A trusted pastor in Worcester was arrested for allegedly creating sexually explicit pictures of children who were sleeping over at her and her husband’s house, Western Cape police said on Friday.

Police spokesperson Ndakhe Gwala said officers from the Serial and Electronic Crimes Investigation unit, working with the Worcester Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit, arrested the senior pastor on Monday.

They investigated claims that she fooled three children into sleeping over at her home between 2016 and 2022.

“In this period, she drugged the children, undressed them, and took pictures [of them],” said Gwala.

“One of the victims said the suspect locked her in a bedroom and told her to undress and not be uncomfortable because they are both females. She then took naked pictures of her in different angles,” added Gwala.

Police discovered that the pastor and her husband had both served 15-year jail terms for raping children.

She was charged with five counts of human trafficking, two counts of rape, and 100 counts of the possession and creation of pornography involving children.

She appeared in court on Wednesday and will stay in custody until Tuesday, when she will apply for bail.

In the meantime, the police said they were investigating whether her husband was also involved in the latest incidents.

In June, a police officer testifying ahead of the sentencing of Kevin Mulligan in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg told the court that cases of child pornography were becoming increasingly widespread.

Lieutenant Colonel Heila Niemand said at times, police officers recovered as many as 150 000 images from perpetrators.

She explained that, distressingly, not all of the children in the images were identified and located.

Last July, a partnership between local police and US authorities led to the arrest of a 32-year-old Cape Town woman after she allegedly sold naked pictures of her 4-year-old daughter on the dark web.

In another case, an Overberg farmer was arrested in connection with a child pornography case during a joint operation by local police and officers from the US Department of Homeland Security outside Swellendam in the Western Cape.