A couple was yesterday sentenced to five years each by Magistrate Adele Nagamootoo at the Reliance Magistrate’s Court, Corentyne after they were found guilty of conspiracy to traffic in persons.
Attorney-at-law Peter Hugh confirmed to Stabroek News today that his clients, Candace Abigail Anderson and her partner Wesley Hart were each sentenced to five years in prison.
The couple was charged last year April along with two other persons with trafficking in person and conspiracy to traffic in person. They had appeared initially before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton and were granted bail.
Hugh said he only represented the two and could not say what happened to the two other persons-Stephon Fraser (Anderson’s son) and Omefa Paul.
Fraser, Paul and Hart were each read separate charges in which it was alleged that they conspired with Anderson to engage in trafficking in persons either by transporting and/or harbouring numerous females by means of fraud for the purpose of exploitation.
Anderson had faced two charges one for transporting and harbouring the girls and the other for recruiting them between April 15 – 20, 2012 at New Amsterdam.
Hart was charged with conspiring with Anderson to transport the females by means of fraud on April 15, 2012 at New Amsterdam.
Fraser was charged with conspiring with Anderson to transport and harbour the females at Itaballi between April 15 and 20, 2012
Paul was also charged with conspiring with Anderson to harbour the females between April 15 and 20, 2013 at Itaballi.
The victims were rescued with the help of the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO). One of the victims, who was 16 at the time, had related how she was lured with promises of high-paying work in a shop in the interior of Region Seven but she managed to escape the prostitution ring and her report to police later resulted in an arrest and the rescue of the other girls.
The girl, with the help of a kind man, was eventually rescued by an executive member of the GWMO, Irene Sears, at the Itaballi toll gate, after a truck brought her out of the Oko Backdam, in Region Seven.
She was later taken to the Bartica Police Station, where a report was made and after a statement was taken from her, officers had travelled into the backdam and arrested the woman who allegedly lured her. In addition, the police removed other girls–one said to be as young as 13–from the location.
The teenager, who hailed from the coast and attended a secondary school, ran away from her grandmother’s home after she was promised $80,000 a week to work in a shop in the interior.
She had said a man in the area had approached her and informed her that a woman was looking for young girls to take into the interior. Several other girls that she knew had agreed to go on the trip.
“He tell me that we going and wuk in a shop and I believe he. But like dem other girl know wah deh going on,” the child had told Stabroek News. She had eventually met the woman, who visited her home and she left with her while her grandmother was out.
“I run away from home,” she admitted and when asked the reason, said, “nothing really, we grow up poor and I just want mek some money.”
Trafficking in persons has put Guyana under the scrutiny of the US State Department and this has built pressure for the police to take action against traffickers and present solid cases in court.
