Police Corporal Huford David, who is accused of taking a 14-year-old girl into Region Seven to be a sex worker, was yesterday charged with human trafficking.
David, 36, of Sisters Village, East Bank Berbice, pleaded not guilty to the charge, which stated that between January 1 and January 31, 2013, at Kumakuma Creek, Mazaruni River, he kept the girl for the purpose of exploitation.
The charge was read to him at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, who refused bail.
Police Inspector Stephen Telford told the court that between January 1 and January 31, 2013, David is alleged to have contacted the virtual complainant (VC), who is 14, and her sister. David, he said, told them he needed two girls to work with him; one to work in a bar and the other to do the business. While her sister refused, the 14-year-old girl agreed to go with David.
Telford said David allegedly took the girl to a hotel, where they spent the night. He later took her to Parika and then to Bartica, from where transported her to Kumakuma Creek, Mazaruni River.
It was at this point, the prosecutor said, that David explained to the girl that she would collect gold and money and give it to the shopkeeper, who was identified as ‘Rankin.’
According to Telford, as a result of nine sexual encounters, the girl accumulated 12 pennyweights of gold and $160,000 cash, which she later gave to the shopkeeper. A few days later, he noted, the girl insisted on having her gold and money.
But when she approached the shopkeeper but he told her that he did not have it. She then went to David, who showed her a book which stated that she only worked for six pennyweights of gold and $130,000 cash but he too told her that he did not have either.
As a result, the girl became annoyed and escaped, Telford said. He added that she later made a report to the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO), following which investigations were launched into the matter and David was located, arrested and charged
David was remanded to prison. He will be kept at the Lusignan Prison until his next court date, which is May 2.
The 14-year-old was among four girls rescued from Tiger Creek Backdam, at Puruni, in Region Seven, by members of the GWMO, who found them being held against their will by shop owners. Simona Broomes, GWMO President, had told Stabroek News on Sunday that the 14-year-old, who is youngest of the girls, had indicated that she was taken into the interior location by the police officer, who has a shop there. She said she left his shop after he refused to pay her, after forcing her to work as a sex worker.
