Victims of advocate Paul Kennedy’s child sex ring must still get justice – WMACA

Activist organisation Women and Men Against Child Abuse (WMACA) has urged the State to use all its resources to ensure that the victims in the alleged child sex ring case against well-known senior advocate Paul Kennedy received the justice they deserved.

Kennedy died on Monday. The cause of his death has not been confirmed.

Following Kennedy’s death, WMACA’s Miranda Jordan-Friedman said they are expecting the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to ensure that the remaining cases in which Kennedy was involved would proceed seamlessly.

According to WMACA, the 63-year-old advocate who was facing more than 700 charges of rape, sexual assault, and possession of child pornography, left a trail of victims who will not see him held accountable for the atrocities he allegedly committed against them.

“The severity of the crimes he is accused of having committed, the abuse of power that seemed apparent given his social and legal status could not be overlooked as a tool for perpetrating these crimes,” the organisation said.

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“This will undoubtedly have a tremendous psychosocial impact on the victims who are waiting for this matter to begin. The accused had not yet pleaded before the court.”

Jordan-Friedman also said the co-accused who had also not yet pleaded in court had been identified in another ongoing sexual assault case that is before the Alexandra Magistrate’s Court.

Kennedy and his co-accused were ordered by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to get tested for HIV after one of the complainants in the rape case against them tested positive for the virus.

However, the NPA said it was uncertain at this stage what would happen with the case as the authority could only comment once evidence, such as a copy of the death certificate, was presented in court.

“We have not confirmed with his family or any close friends, in terms of any updates we would have to find out from the prosecutors who are on the matter,” the NPA’s Bulelwa Makeke said.

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Meanwhile, according to the final indictment, Kennedy and his co-accused face over 700 charges between the two of them, including hundreds of counts relating to child pornography, multiple counts of rape, sexual assault, and human trafficking. 

The advocate was charged with three separate counts of rape, and “compelled rape” where he alleged forced one of the victims to have intercourse with an unknown person as he watched. 

He was also charged with four counts of sexual assault, charges of compelled sexual assault, sexual exploitation of children, the sexual grooming of children, benefitting from the services of a child victim of trafficking, financing, and controlling or organising the trafficking of a child victim. 

The co-accused also faces hundreds of charges relating to the unlawful possession of child pornography, with 253 videos found on his cellphone and an additional 386 images on his laptop, according to the State.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za