Amid the sordid details of a child sex-ring, trafficking and the disappearance of its alleged mastermind without facing justice, the citizen’s arrest on Saturday of Gerhard Ackerman came as a beacon of hope for humanity.
Details of the charges against Ackerman, 52, and late advocate Paul Kennedy mirror the heinous sex crimes of US financier and convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
The suicides of Epstein in his jail cell in August 2019, shortly after being arrested again on federal charges for sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York, and Kennedy — who was out on R20,000 bail — days before his court appearance in February last year in connection with more than 700 counts, is an indictment of the horror of their actions.
Powerful men who lured innocent children for profit and sexual pleasure. Humanity gone rotten.
As FBI investigations have revealed, there is a large network of powerful and wealthy clients who wilfully participated in violating our most innocent citizens.
Epstein’s boys club implicated the late Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, Prince Andrew, who faces allegations from US woman Virginia Roberts, who claimed she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was 17, after being trafficked by the duo. While Andrew has denied the allegation, he paid out a multimillion-pound settlement. He is now making a bid to return to public life after being snubbed by his monarch brother, as if the money has cleansed his reputation and karma.
The sex-ring thrives because of the duplicitous actions of individuals who on the surface embody virtue and being upright citizens. Kennedy was a well-known advocate who until his death served as counsel for the state capture commission chaired by deputy chief justice Raymond Zondo.
But as the indictment shows, the prominent advocate and Ackerman’s phones and laptops had images and videos of child pornography, they targeted minors on social media platforms, including Facebook, made travel arrangements for the boys to travel to Johannesburg, rented the boys to clients for sexual favours and engaged in sexual acts with the children themselves.
It beggars belief that after years tracking down evidence to nab them, Ackerman and Kennedy were released on bail.
Sex crimes by their very nature are either unreported or swept under the carpet because of victims’ shame and self-guilt, conditions which make the perpetrators feel invincible.
As child advocate specialist Luke Lamprecht told media, the pair were facing more than 700 charges — many of them schedule six offences that require exceptional circumstances to have been granted bail. Lamprecht’s theory of Kennedy exerting his influence to secure bail is plausible, but reflects poorly on our system.
Thankfully, Ackerman’s attempts to get the state to return his laptop — the same device that, according to the indictment, was used to lure young boys into his world, and where he would allegedly advertise services to willing clients — to ensure he would be able to earn an income, weren’t entertained.
It is precisely because he was out on bail that Ackerman was a no-show in court last Thursday. Investigators found he had sold all his belongings when they visited his home, forcing the state to revoke his bail.
On Monday, Ackerman protested his innocence again, claiming he wasn’t evading trial. However, statements by police officers after his arrest, read into the court record, revealed they believed he intended to abscond and commit suicide. When they asked him if he was attempting to evade trial for the charges he faced, Ackerman allegedly told them he wasn’t going to get a fair trial.
Lamprecht believes like in the Epstein case, big names are likely to emerge as participants in Kennedy and Ackerman’s case.
A police psychologist has testified how the duo had preyed on children from disadvantaged backgrounds or dysfunctional families, and most were undergoing stress about the trial and already reeling mentally from the abuse.
Sex crimes by their very nature are either unreported or swept under the carpet because of victims’ shame and self-guilt, conditions which make the perpetrators feel invincible.
This is what got a retired teacher arrested in SA after a BBC radio programme about alleged paedophilia in British schools prompted individuals to come forward and expose his crimes on two continents.
Or the policewoman who was arrested on Friday after a video of her allegedly raping her 10-year-old son went viral.
In most cases, there are often signs of involvement of the abuse, or sometimes it is openly discussed at the 19th hole or during late-night whisky sessions. Other times there are victims who are no longer ensnared in the vicious cycle.
Civic action therefore is necessary to stop this vicious wheel from turning, asin the case of the vigilant woman who listened to her 14-year-old stepdaughter in Epstein’s first charge.
As Johannesburg director of public prosecutions Andrew Chauke pointed out, it waspart vigilance and part outrage which led to Ackerman’s rearrest. Media played their role by publishing his picture, and a vigilant member of the public who spotted him at a shopping centre in Florida, made a citizen’s arrest and called police.
We should all take a leaf out of that book, to be outraged and play our part in ending this abhorrent crime, for the sake of the children.
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