Africa-Press – South-Africa. Gerhard Ackerman and Paul Kennedy were arrested for their alleged involvement in a child sex abuse ring after one of the alleged victims spoke out, which led police to a massage parlour, more victims, WhatsApp chats and hundreds of videos and images.
Ackerman is currently on trial in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg, facing 740 charges, most of which relate to his alleged running of a child sex ring and the unlawful possession of child pornography.
This week, the High Court heard testimony from the first investigating officer, Warrant Officer Hendricke Du Plessis, who detailed how he was made aware of Ackerman and Kennedy and their subsequent arrests.
Du Plessis was first contacted by a 16-year-old teenager, *Brendan, who wanted to lay a complaint against Ackerman.
He said Brendan told him about a massage parlour in Sandringham, Johannesburg and that he had been living there with Ackerman. Brendan claimed that he had been “rented out” by Ackerman to perform massages on adult males.
In addition, Brendan told Du Plessis that Ackerman confiscated his cellphone and used it, along with images of the teenager, to create social media and dating website profiles to speak to other minor boys.
Brendan also told Du Plessis that another minor boy, *James, was expected to arrive at the massage parlour on the same day that he left. Brendan then gave James’ cell phone number to Du Plessis.
Du Plessis told the court that he had phoned James, but there was no answer. He then left a message.
A day or so later, James called Du Plessis and sent him a pin location to where he was. James was staying with Ackerman but said that he was home alone at the time as Ackerman had gone on a golf tour.
Du Plessis met with James, who was only 15 years old at the time.
James told Du Plessis the same story as Brendan, that he was there to work for Ackerman at the massage parlour and that he also had his cellphone confiscated for a while.
However, James also revealed:
It was also James who first made mention of Kennedy.
James allegedly told Du Plessis that Kennedy paid him money for videos and that Kennedy had also paid for his bus ticket to Gauteng to go and work for Ackerman as a masseur.
With this information, Du Plessis phoned his senior, Captain Veronica Banks, and the two decided to remove the minor from that environment. Du Plessis contacted James’ parents and then drove him back to the Free State, where he lived.
Later in the investigation, both James and Brendan would give police more information about the alleged crimes committed against them, including rape.
Search and seizure
Du Plessis then approached the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, where he got search and seizure warrants authorised.
He went back to the home of Ackerman, who had still not returned from a golf tour.
De Plessis was led to Ackerman’s brother after running the plates of a green BMW parked in the driveway. Through the brother, he managed to get Ackerman’s cellphone number.
Du Plessis testified that he called Ackerman and said he needed to see him about the vehicle.
However, he did not disclose to him that he was the subject of an investigation.
A meeting was subsequently scheduled.
When Du Plessis met with Ackerman, he then revealed the true nature of the meeting and went ahead and seized two cellphones, a USB drive and a laptop.
After taking Ackerman to the police station where he was later detained, Du Plessis handed over the electronic devices to a forensic expert to extract the data.
Du Plessis then also arrested Kennedy and seized an iPhone and laptop. Those devices were also handed over for data extraction.
Incriminating data
After receiving a copy of the data from all the devices, Du Plessis started studying the contents, which included videos, images and WhatsApp conversations.
He told the court that he found a lot of videos and images of child pornography and also WhatsApp conversations between Ackerman and Kennedy.
In addition, there were also other conversations between Ackerman and other minors, which is how police managed to track down other victims.
Du Plessis also testified that Ackerman had conversations with other men, who he established were clients. He told the court that there were 168 clients in total.
While there were conversations about massages, said investigations also revealed that the minors were used for sexual acts allegedly by Ackerman and his clients.
Bank records for Kennedy also confirmed that he had been paying money to Ackerman and James, Du Plessis said.
Ackerman and Kennedy then appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, where they were granted bail. The matter was then moved to the High Court.
Kennedy, who also acted as a High Court judge, died by suicide in his Johannesburg home in February 2022, before the trial started.
Ackerman denied the allegations against him, claiming he ran a legitimate massage parlour.
He has denied that he forced the teenage boys to perform sexual acts on clients and said that if they did so, it must have been of their own volition.
He pleaded not guilty to 740 charges, including rape, sexual assault, human trafficking, attempted murder, sexual grooming of children and the unlawful possession and creation of child pornography.
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