Gerhard Ackerman has been acquitted on two charges of rape among the 740 charges related to the alleged child sex ring.

This after lawyer Herman Alberts argued for Ackerman’s right to acquittal in terms of section 174 after the witnesses did not testify to any oral sex performed on them by Ackerman.

The Johannesburg high court on Monday found him not guilty on those counts.

Alberts submitted to the court a formal admission in terms of section 220 of the Criminal Procedure Act on some aspects of the case.  

Ackerman admitted to some of the contents in the statements by Esaias Claassen, of the US department of homeland security.

Claassen is an expert who analysed the contents of Ackerman’s devices, including cellphones and laptop seized during his arrest.  

Among others, he admitted to the evidence containing an excerpt of a Facebook chat with a 16-year-old, where the boy asked Ackerman whether he had had sex with boys, and Ackerman replied yes and claimed to have enjoyed it.

Ackerman also admitted to receiving money from co-accused Adv Paul Kennedy but said he was meant to give it to someone else. While Kennedy was added as a co-accused in the matter, he died from an apparent suicide before the matter made it to trial.

Ackerman also admitted he informed Kennedy he had instructed a boy on how to give a  massage and that in his talks with Kennedy, he indicated the boy was young and a virgin.

After submitting the formal admission, Ackerman took the stand to provide his version of events.

Kennedy, who would have been a co-accused in the trial, died before the trial commenced.

Among the charges Ackerman is facing are unlawful possession of child pornography, sexual grooming of children, human trafficking, procuring child pornography, sexual assault, sexual exploitation of children, rape, attempted murder and malicious damage to property.

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