Africa-Press – South-Africa. A man facing more than 700 charges related to the sexual abuse of children failed to appear in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Thursday because he was reportedly ill.
Gerhard Andre Ackerman failed to attend the court case on the day the State was planning to lead evidence of WhatsApp messages he allegedly sent to clients about the child victims and the services offered.
On Thursday, the court heard that Ackerman would not be coming to court because he had fallen ill.
His legal aid attorney, Herman Alberts, told the court he had received communication from Ackerman that he had food poisoning and had not slept as a result. Alberts informed the court that Ackerman would present a medical certificate at the next appearance.
A United States Department of Homeland Security investigator was meant to take the stand as the State’s second witness on Thursday.
The evidence by the investigator is understood to revolve around WhatsApp messages and voice notes that Ackerman allegedly sent to clients, including senior advocate and acting Judge Paul Kennedy, who has since taken his own life.
These messages allegedly included descriptions of the child victims and the sexual services Ackerman and Kennedy reportedly rendered, as per the indictment.
Ackerman, who is also known as “Gerrie” is accused of running a child sex ring in Johannesburg between 2019 and 2021. According to the indictment, Ackerman would allegedly search for teenage boys on Facebook and other social media sites. He would allegedly solicit pornographic videos and images from the child victims and sell them to clients.
Ackerman has also been accused of sexually grooming the victims, trafficking them and teaching them how to perform sexual services, before selling the said services to a list of “clients”. Several of the charges state that Ackerman allegedly received money for the services rendered by the teenagers.
Some of the charges state that the crimes were allegedly committed at Kennedy’s home, while others were allegedly committed at a place rented by Ackerman, which fronted as a massage parlour, where the teenagers were allegedly sexually exploited.
According to the indictment, Kennedy was not only a client of Ackerman’s, but allegedly helped him procure the teenagers for sexual exploitation. In one instance, Kennedy allegedly paid for a bus ticket for one of the teenage boys to travel to Johannesburg.
Kennedy was initially arrested and charged alongside Ackerman for the alleged crimes but died by suicide before the trial started.
The trial is expected to continue on Monday.
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