- Gerhard Ackerman is on trial for crimes he allegedly committed against children, including the alleged running of a child sex abuse ring.
- He has pleaded not guilty to 740 charges, including rape, human trafficking, unlawful possession of child pornography and sexual grooming of children.
- On Tuesday, the court pointed out that Ackerman's defence was riddled with contradictions and that he kept altering his versions.
The testimony of Gerhard Ackerman in the child sex abuse ring trial was so contradictory, with his versions constantly changing, that it was described as a proverbial weathervane, facing any direction the wind blows.
This was Judge Ismail Mahomed's analogy as the State argued that Ackerman’s evidence should be disregarded during closing arguments in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Ackerman has effectively been accused of running a child sex abuse ring, where minor teenagers were allegedly trafficked, groomed and then forced to perform sexual acts with clients for a fee.
Contradictions galore
In her closing arguments State prosecutor, advocate Valencia Dube, took the court through Ackerman's defence and how it kept changing through the versions that were put to witnesses, then with his evidence-in-chief, and finally while under cross-examination and confronted with the State’s evidence that was not in dispute.
1. Producing child pornography
The State revealed that explicit videos of a 15-year-old boy were made and sent to Ackerman's most prominent client, senior advocate and acting judge Paul Kennedy.
While Ackerman admitted to knowing about the videos, he originally tried to distance himself by claiming that the videos were sent directly to Kennedy and that another teenager had told the 15-year-old how to make the videos for which he was paid.
However, after the State produced conversations about the videos between Ackerman and Kennedy, Ackerman conceded that he gave direction to the minor boy on how to produce the videos, because "he knew what Kennedy's preferences" were for the child pornography.
It was also revealed that some of the videos were sent directly to Ackerman, who would forward them to Kennedy.
Kennedy was arrested and charged alongside Ackerman, but died by suicide before the trial started.
2. Sexual acts with clients
During the trial, Ackerman kept putting the same version to different witnesses that he was running a legitimate massage parlour and was teaching teenagers, older than 16, how to become masseurs so that they could make an income for themselves.
During his evidence-in-chief, this version was altered as he now admitted that the boys were giving clients a "happy ending", meaning clients were masturbated until they climaxed.
Ackerman said that without the "happy endings", he wouldn't have clients and maintained that there was nothing wrong with the sexual act because the teenagers were old enough to legally consent to sex.
During cross-examination, Dube presented more conversations between Ackerman and clients, forcing him to concede that the boys were also made to perform other sexual acts on clients or have those acts performed on them.
Despite the Sexual Offences Act being clear that this was the sexual exploitation of children, Ackerman still saw no issue, claiming that if a minor is old enough to consent, then it must be legal.
Mahomed said the version of a massage with a "happy ending" and no sex was nothing more than a fabrication.
3. Setting of prices and finding clients
In keeping with his original version that he was only helping less fortunate boys to make money and a life for themselves, Ackerman first claimed that the "masseurs" set the prices.
However, this version was later altered as more WhatsApp conversations between Ackerman and clients were presented to court.
In one conversation, Ackerman told a client that one boy would cost R1 200, while two boys would cost R2 000. He further told the client what he could do with the boys, which served as another example discrediting his version that it was an above board massage parlour.
Ackerman's version of who fixed the prices remained the same until he was confronted by the WhatsApp conversations, which he did not dispute.
On the contention of fixing prices, Mahomed said Ackerman’s evidence "wasn't just shaky, it was all over the place".
Ackerman had also said that the boys were tasked with finding their own clients, but later conceded that the clients were his.
4. Possession of child pornography
Ackerman was found with hundreds of images and videos of child pornography on his cellphone and laptop.
Ackerman claimed that he did not know about the pornography and said it was obviously deleted from his devices, but police managed to retrieve the deleted files.
When Dube presented evidence that the images and videos were not deleted, but rather found in a WhatsApp folder on his cellphone and in a folder titled "boys" on his hard drive on his laptop, Ackerman then changed his version.
Ackerman said he never saw the images or videos, as he had hundreds of normal images and videos on his cellphone.
He changed his version again, claiming to have only had a couple of images of naked boys on his phone from a website he was subscribed to.
The version was later altered another time as he told the court that many of the boys had access to his cellphone and laptop and that one of the boys must have put the child pornography on there.
Major contradiction
The judge said Ackerman's evidence was not consistent and also pointed out what he said was another major contradiction in his testimony. This was Ackerman's so-called golden rule of no sex, yet evidence presented in WhatsApp conversations shows that Kennedy had intercourse with at least two of the boys, which included a 14-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy.
Ackerman also admitted to having sex with two of the boys, which he claimed was consensual. The boys testified that they did not give Ackerman consent, and were raped.
Dube also pointed out that through the human trafficking and sexual grooming of children charges, legal consent falls away in any event as "consent" was given as a result of undue influence and deception.
Ackerman also changed his version about how he and one of the boys had sex.
In a WhatsApp conversation, Ackerman also told a client that he had a boy he could have sex with.
Mahomed said Ackerman portrayed himself as a gentle lamb trying to help kids, but that on his own version he was a devious predator.
"His evidence is not consistent, it changes from broad daylight to the darkness of the night," the judge said.
Ackerman's closing arguments
Ackerman's closing arguments mostly related to technical issues in the indictment, which included the duplication of charges, his legal aid attorney, Herman Alberts, told the court.
Alberts also argued that in respect of some of the charges, no evidence was led, as the complainants did not testify about the incident, including a count of sexual assault.
The court was also told that one of the minor children could not be seen as a reliable witness as there was contradictory testimony, including who had trained him to perform the massages and who gave them "special underwear".
Alberts also touched on ignorance of the law and whether that could be a defence.
Ackerman pleaded not guilty to 740 charges, including rape, sexual grooming of children, sexual assault, human trafficking and possession of child pornography.
The matter has been postponed to April for judgment.