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The disturbing online world dubbed “sleep porn”, operating globally, has spread to South Africa, with offenders now being brought to book through advanced technology-driven investigations.
The growing phenomenon was recently exposed in a CNN investigation prompted by the notorious case of Frenchman Dominique Pelicot, who was convicted of drugging his wife, selling her to more than 70 men and posting videos of hundreds of rape incidents online over 10 years.
Shortly after CNN’s expose aired, the SAPS arrested two suspects in Gauteng for possession and distribution of drug-facilitated sexual abuse material after a multi-disciplinary takedown operation.
The operation followed an intelligence report received by the national Serial and Electronic Crime Investigations (SECI) team from the National Crime Agency of the British High Commission in Cape Town. The report flagged a South African target allegedly involved in drug-facilitated sexual assault, also known as somnophilia or sleep fetish abuse.
Digital forensics investigator Craig Pederson said while he was aware “of this atrocious stuff happening globally”, it was likely taking place on private forums where offenders recruited others through invitation-only networks.
“It’s difficult to assess without reading the actual docket and seeing the material worked with and whether it was clear web or dark web activity,” he said.
According to police spokesperson Amanda van Wyk, detectives arrested two suspects for possession and distribution of drug-facilitated sexual abuse and child sexual abuse material during the Gauteng operation on March 26.
She said a 34-year-old husband had allegedly been drugging and raping his wife before distributing pornographic material showing him performing sexual acts on her without consent over a five-year period.
“The victim appeared sedated and in a state of unconsciousness when these serious sexual offences were committed,” Van Wyk said.
The takedown involved investigators from the national and provincial SECI teams in Gauteng, supported by the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations.
That arrest led to another development when investigators were able to apprehend a second suspect in Germiston later that day — a 48-year-old man known to the first suspect and believed to have operated with a similar modus operandi. Police seized his electronic devices and two unlicensed firearms.
Van Wyk said the suspects face several charges including sexual assault, possession, distribution and manufacturing of pornography, as well as contravening the Cybercrimes Act by sharing intimate images without consent. The matter is expected to be heard in court next month.
SECI head Lt-Col Heila Niemand told the Sunday Times that more of these cases were being uncovered in South Africa with many of the tip-offs coming from international law enforcement agencies who would report them to SA law enforcement after receiving alerts from agents in their respective countries. She said local investigations were carried out using advanced technology.
Speaking to the Sunday Times this week, CNN Paris bureau chief Saskya Vandoorne described the seven-month investigation that led to Dutch authorities shutting down the sex website Motherless, which hosted more than 20,000 videos of “sleep content” and drew 62-million visits in February and 80-million in March. The probe also led to the arrest of an alleged serial offender in Poland.
The investigation, broadcast in March, uncovered what Vandoorne described as a hidden global “online rape academy” — a digital playbook for predators sharing tips and videos on drugging and sexually assaulting women.
Vandoorne said the investigation stemmed from her interview with rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot, who became a feminist icon in 2024 after waiving her right to anonymity during the multiple rape trial in which her husband received a 20-year prison sentence along with 46 accomplices.
“I remember the lawyer describing the website used to recruit the men as ‘a weapon of crime’, and while I knew that site had been taken down and come up again, I was curious to know whether there were other similar ones operating,” Vandoorne said.
It was all in the open, with members getting medals for long term loyalty, with their views and videos easily seen
— CNN's Niamh Kennedy
Her London-based colleague Niamh Kennedy created a male persona and infiltrated the Motherless site undercover ― a site they targeted because it had been reported on in German media.
What she found was graphic content openly shared alongside advice on drug dosages, how to check whether a woman was unconscious, and adverts for sedatives that could be ordered online.
“It was all in the open, with members getting medals for long-term loyalty, with their views and videos easily seen. On one occasion I found a link on a Motherless profile and was able to infiltrate a group chat on Telegram where illicit material was going undetected. Those group chats were not hidden or deeply encrypted, they were actually well organised with tabs and folders and specific chat forums,” Kennedy said.
“In our experience service providers might have terms of service, but they don’t enforce them and a lot of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) and terrorist material is shared under the guise of ‘freedom of expression’.”
According to Vandoorne, “a lot needs to be done by the porn industry to stop the normalising of rape in discourse and the camaraderie” among users. She said narcissism and patriarchal control appeared to be dominant traits among offenders.
“It’s a pernicious crime, so we will definitely continue our investigations,” she said.
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