KWAZULU- NATAL - DURBAN - EX-TEACHER JAILED FOR CHILD PORN!

Durban - A prominent Durban drama teacher was sentenced to three years behind bars and a R100 000 fine after being convicted of drafting young boys to make homemade porn.

Colin Chapman, 48, appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to the offence after he was arrested last year, provincial police spokesperson Major Thulani Zwane confirmed in a statement.

“On 17 August 2014, the Umbilo [police] members received information of a man who was recruiting young boys to take part [in] porn movies. The members proceeded to his flat in Umbilo, searched his premises and found 11 DVDs, one VHS, cellphones, laptops, memory sticks, documents and [a] camera containing sexual material,” he said.

Chapman, a prominent figure in the performing arts community, had groomed several teenage boys with the promise of money.

He would strike up a conversation with them using Whatsapp and BBM, before offering them cash to send nude pictures. Over the space of several months, he paid one 16-year-old nearly R35 000 for images, videos and sexual favours which he filmed.

The police's cybercrimes unit spent weeks combing through electronic equipment seized from his home, trying to trace victims of thousands of images of child porn that they had found.

Chapman had had a previous conviction for sexual assault while he was teaching at Hillcrest High School, after grooming a teenage boy and eventually performing oral sex on him.

He was given a suspended sentence and went on to teach at Maritzburg College and Durban High School before he was arrested.

Chapman had never been added to the sexual offenders’ register, and remained a registered teacher despite his criminal conviction.

KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni applauded the conviction, adding that police would continue to focus on similar cases.

VIA - news24.com