[imagesource: Gerhard Ackerman]

The trial for the alleged child sex ring kingpin, South Africa’s Jeffrey Epstein, has been underway in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.

New details have emerged about how Gerhard Ackerman and his co-accused Paul Kennedy were arrested for their involvement in the alleged child sex ring.

While Ackerman faces 740 charges ranging from rape, attempted murder, distribution of child porn, and human trafficking of minor children for sexual exploitation, Kennedy, who was a human rights lawyer and acting High Court judge, committed suicide at home before even entering the courtroom.

The pair ran a massage parlour in Sandringham, where over 150 clients would reportedly pay for massages and sexual experiences with the boys who performed the massages.

Ackerman has pleaded not guilty and has instead provided a testimony in which he says the boys were all of age to have sex, that he never forced them to have sex with anyone, and that they wanted to do the things they did as they wanted to earn money.

Is it just me or does that sound like by-the-book guilty justifications?

TimesLIVE reports that while Ackerman admitted to having sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old boy, he said the boy initiated it and proposed the business idea, too:

At the time, Ackerman was accommodating two boys — an orphan and one who had left home because of   “harsh conditions” he had been exposed to.

“I gave them free accommodation. One of the boys was 17 or 18. He suggested why don’t we start a business from the flat. I said ‘what business’ and he said the massage business. I said ‘who is going to do the massage?’ I thought ‘well that is not a bad idea maybe we should try it’. We tried it and it went well,” he told the court.

He said he took in boys “doing prostitution work from the street” but told them “no penetration sex with clients” adding that the business was centred around a ‘happy ending’ which was part of the massage:

Ackerman told the court that he had trained about 70 to 100 masseuses and there wasn’t any of them who didn’t want the ‘happy ending.’

He also said that he was aware that the age for consent to sex in SA is 16, and said all the boys who worked for him were 16 years and older except for one, referred to as TW, who was three weeks shy of turning 16:

He said when TW arrived at his place, he told him that he wasn’t allowed to do any ‘happy endings’ because of his age. Ackerman said  TW insisted that he wanted to do it and claimed he was very bored with his life.

Ackerman said he did not discuss or teach  TW about ‘happy endings’  but he trained him on massages and he would practise on him for the correct pressure and also the technique.

Ackerman said he would approach boys on Grindr and Facebook:

When asked about SJ, another minor who stayed with him and whom he met on Grindr, he replied that he came to him as he needed a place to stay and wanted to make money.

He said he trained SJ, who was 16 at the time, and admitted to having sex with him. When Alberts asked him how did he have sex with SJ, he replied that they were doing the training and he instigated sex.

Meanwhile, one of the investigating officers in the matter, Warrant Officer Hendricke Du Plessis, testified that the reason he found Ackerman in the first place was that a 16-year-old boy working for Ackerman wanted to file charges against him, notes IOL:

The teen further told the investigating officer Ackerman confiscated his cellphone and used it, along with photographs of the boy, to create social media accounts and dating website profiles to speak to minor boys.

Through this boy, Du Plessis was also able to get in touch with the other boy who Ackerman took in:

The boy, 15 years old at the time, was staying with Ackerman and was alone at home as Ackerman was away on a golf tour. The boy told Du Plessis the same story as the previous victim.

But, he further revealed he had been sexually assaulted by Ackerman and was paid to make explicit videos and take explicit photographs for Ackerman. The boy also told Du Plessis he still had the videos and images on his cell phone.

Later in the investigation, both boys gave the police more information about the alleged crimes set against them, including rape.

Du Plessis and his team took the boys out of the house and upon finally finding Ackerman and Kennedy, confiscated their phones and laptops, which were full of incriminating evidence.

Bank statements show that Kennedy was paying Ackerman and one of the boys.

The attempted murder charge alleges that Ackerman unlawfully and intentionally attempted to kill a 16-year-old by handing the teen to Kennedy for sexual acts despite knowing that Kennedy was HIV positive.

Today Ackerman will continue with his testimony in court as the trial continues.

[sources:timeslive&iol]