Satanic child-porn fraudster dodges jail
A court bestowed mercy on Leone Steyn who was convicted for spinning a web of lies about a satanic child-porn ring to defraud organisations of more than R500K.
|||Johannesburg - The conwoman who defrauded more than R500 000 from churches, an online counselling service and residents of Mogale City has dodged a lengthy prison sentence.
But over the next five years, Leone Steyn will have to pay back the money she stole. In addition, she will be kept under house arrest for the next three years and has been ordered to continue drug rehabilitation and psychological treatment.
When she was 17 years old, Steyn laid the groundwork for a more than three-year-long scam that ultimately netted her R592 000 in cash and goods that she defrauded from churches and an online counselling service.
Using the counselling service MobieG, Steyn created more than 50 profiles of fictitious children who she claimed had been rescued from a satanic child-porn ring, and had the service solicit donations from churches across Mogale City.
Sometimes pretending to kill off her characters through suicide to garner sympathy, Steyn also got the company to donate thousands upon thousands to the fake safe house where the children were supposedly being kept.
On Monday, Steyn, now 23, was sentenced in the Roodepoort Magistrate’s Court and has apologised through her lawyer Quentin van Huyssteen for the damage she did.
Magistrate Andrea Davie delivered a stern judgment, telling the young woman that she had betrayed the trust of all those from whom she stole, particularly Stephnie Crouse, the director of MobieG.
“You preyed on their goodness and the generosity of the complainant (Crouse),” Davie said.
The magistrate noted how Steyn had ruined the counselling service’s reputation and finances, and that people in need of counselling had to go without it as the service suffered financially.
She said the reason she had chosen not to send Steyn to prison for the minimum 15-year sentence was that the young woman would not be able to earn an income and repay Crouse.
Davie sentenced Steyn to a five-year suspended prison sentence, warning her that should she commit any other fraud or theft, she would quickly find herself behind bars.
She then sentenced her to three years' correctional supervision and house arrest, meaning she has to wear an electronic bracelet preventing her from going anywhere outside of areas designated by the Department of Correctional Services.
Steyn was ordered to pay back Crouse R270 000 over the next five years at R4 500 a month from her current R5 000 salary.
The magistrate also ordered that Steyn continue her drug rehabilitation at Westcliff Clinic, perform 16 hours' community service each month and refrain from using any alcohol or drugs.
Crouse welcomed the outcome.
shain.germaner@inl.co.za
The Star