Convicted sex trafficker and child rapist Gerhard Ackerman has been handed 12 life sentences for crimes related to the sex abuse ring he ran in Johannesburg.
Ackerman appeared in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Monday, where Judge Mohamed Ismail sentenced him for the more than 700 charges he had been found guilty of.
The life sentences were imposed for each of the rape and human trafficking counts, including the rape of minors.
Ismail said Ackerman was a “plainly evil man” who lured children and opened them up to abuse from other men for his own benefit.
Ackerman was found guilty of:
Human trafficking
Sexual exploitation of minors
Hundreds of counts of possession of child pornography
Creating child pornography
Sexual grooming of minors
Exposing himself to children
Most of the crimes Ackerman committed related to his possession of child porn and the child sex abuse ring he masterminded with the help of well-known advocate and acting judge, Paul Kennedy.
Kennedy was arrested and charged alongside Ackerman but died to suicide before the trial started.
In his judgment, Ismail said Kennedy had killed himself because he realised his days were numbered when he was arrested.
In running the child sex abuse ring, Ackerman would find young teenage boys from poor and troubled families on social media. Most of the boys were between the ages of 14 and 16.
He would then gain their trust and offer them work at his “massage parlour,” which was effectively a front for his sex abuse business.
After convincing the boys to work as masseurs, Ackerman trafficked them to the brothel and harboured them.
The boys were then sexually groomed and sold for sexual services to a large list of clients.
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