News24.com | Child sex abuse ring: Gerhard Ackerman found guilty of child porn charges, sex trafficking, grooming

Gerhard Ackerman was found guilty for his involvement in a child sex trafficking ring.

• Gerhard Ackerman was found guilty on charges including possession of child pornography and rape. 
• Ackerman masterminded a child sex abuse ring. 
• One of Ackerman's clients was senior advocate Paul Kennedy.

The Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg found Gerhard Ackerman guilty on Monday of multiple charges linked to a child sex abuse ring that he masterminded.

Judge Mohamed Ismail found Ackerman guilty of several hundred counts of possession of child pornography. Ismail also found him guilty of two counts of producing child pornography.

In addition, Ackerman was found to have exposed himself to minors, and to have groomed his victims to have sex with those who made use of his child sex ring.

One of Ackerman's clients was Paul Kennedy, a high-profile senior advocate who was an acting judge on several occasions.

The court found that Ackerman had sent at least one teenage boy to Kennedy, knowing that the lawyer was HIV positive.

Before Kennedy took his own life last year, he was charged alongside Ackerman.

Ackerman faced 740 charges, including possession of child pornography, rape, human trafficking, sexual grooming of a child, sexual assault and the sexual exploitation of children. 

During the trial, evidence was led to prove that Ackerman had found young teenage boys on social media, trafficked them, sexually groomed them and sold their sexual services to a large list of clients. 

On Monday, Ismail found that Ackerman had trafficked teenagers and harboured them at his residence. The court rejected the accused's version that the children had joined voluntarily. Ismail found, instead, that Ackerman had taken advantage of the teenagers, who came from impoverished and difficult backgrounds.

Ackerman was also found guilty of benefitting from the services of a trafficking victim.

Ackerman was acquitted of certain charges, but most of those were on the basis of a technicality. The charges were found to have been duplicated in the indictment.