A husband and wife, who recruited four teenage girls from Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam and transported them to Oko Backdam, in Region Seven, for sexual exploitation, on Thursday each received a five year prison sentence.
Candacy Anderson, 38, and her common-law husband, Wesley Hart, 41, of Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara were sentenced by Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo at the Reliance Magistrate’s Court, who found them guilty of human trafficking.
The court heard that on April 15, 2012 Anderson and Hart engaged in trafficking in persons, in that they recruited four girls by means of fraud for the purpose of exploitation.
The couple had been charged last year along with Stephon Fraser, who is Anderson’s son, and Omefa Paul.
At their arraignment before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court, 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; and Paul was also charged with conspiring with Anderson to harbour the females between April 15 and 20, 2013 at Itaballi.
Ten witnesses were called to give evidence by police prosecutor Corporal Orin Joseph. The couple was represented by attorney-at-law, Peter Hugh.
No submissions were made by either party as the lawyer elected to lead the defence instead of leading a no-case submission. At the conclusion of the trial, the magistrate found the couple guilty and handed down the sentence. In a plea of mitigation, the husband and wife had asked for leniency and informed the court that they have a two-month-old baby.
Reports are that they travelled to Berbice in search of females and picked up the girls, two of whom were 15 at the time and the others 16.
The couple informed them that they would be hired to undertake domestic chores and took them to Oko Backdam, Essequibo. Instead, they had the girls doing striptease and engaging in sexual activities for gold and money.
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 she 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.
