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The state is now in hot pursuit of Gerhard Ackerman’s clients.

Dubbed South Africa’s Jeffrey Epstein for running child sex rings out of massage parlours, the monster is finally behind bars. He was convicted for more than 720 charges last Monday, most of which related to the unlawful possession of child pornography and his running of a child sex abuse ring in Johannesburg.

Ackerman targeted young and vulnerable teenagers who came from troubled homes and poor backgrounds, luring them in through social media with promises of job opportunities.

The sicko would then traffic the children and keep them at his residence, where he groomed them before sexually exploiting them to a large list of clients.

News24 reported that during the trial, investigating officer Warrant Officer Hendricke du Plessis testified that through analysing Ackerman’s WhatsApp conversations, it was ascertained that he had 168 clients.

Work on identifying the clients had already started, and the identities of several of these suspects are already known to detectives. …The sources further confirmed that cases are being built against the clients based on the evidence collected.

When police seized Ackerman’s phone, they found incriminating WhatsApp conversations, which outed this long list of clients.

In one conversation, a client named “client cumm ads” on Ackerman’s cell phone, enquires about “boys”, their ages and prices.

While Ackerman and the client deleted several of their responses, it’s clear the enquiry is not only about massaging as Ackerman asks the client if he is willing to bottom, which is a person who prefers a receptive role in intercourse.

The man also asks about prices for a massage and “fun”.

Otherwise, two of the victims revealed the identity of another alleged client in the trial named Herman Combrink:

The [14-year-old victim ] testified that Combrink had also picked him and two other boys up from Pretoria and took them to Ackerman’s so-called massage parlour in Johannesburg. Another 14-year-old victim also gave testimony about Combrink picking them up in Pretoria and driving them to Ackerman’s premises in Johannesburg.

The boy told the court that Combrink allegedly touched his private parts and said he wanted to see what the child was working with. The teenagers were also allegedly told to massage Combrink while he lay on a massage table naked.

Apparently, the police have identified and traced Combrink, who still lives in Pretoria with his mother.

Senior advocate and acting Judge Paul Kennedy was found to be one of Ackerman’s biggest clients, having sexually assaulted and raped three of the minor victims, helping recruit potential victims, while in one instance helping facilitate the trafficking of a 15-year-old victim from the Free State to Gauteng.

Paul was also alleged to have given the victims HIV. He committed suicide before the trial began, escaping the clutches of justice.

More arrests of these alleged clients are imminent.

[source:news24]