Ackerman along with well known acting judge Paul Kennedy -who committed suicide before the start of the trial between 2019 and 2021, were running a child rape ring.
Ackerman’s trial began in January, in which in a space of almost two days he initially took to plead not guilty to 740 charges against him.
The trial took off and ran for three months. Prosecutor Advocate Valencia Dube, collected evidence through conversations on WhatsApp from Ackerman, also reports from the forensic team that found child pornography on his cell phone and laptop.
The accused (Ackerman) was alleged to have targeted young teenage boys on social media, trafficked them, groomed them for sexual intercourse and later sold them for sexual activities to many of his clients. The evidence that was presented in court through WhatsApp conversations, implicated Ackerman sending images of a young boy to a client.
Ackerman was heard on a WhatsApp voice note exchanging two teenage boys for sexual services in a form of payment. He made a bid and explained to the client to pay R1 200 for one boy and for both boys he would only pay an amount of R2 000. The client agreed to the settlement made on the boy. Ackerman then took the same boy to Kennedy’s residence where the advocate allegedly raped him (the boy). The boy was said to be 15 years of age.