A Plantation Grove woman was yesterday placed on $650,000 bail by a city court after she denied a charge that she trafficked an underage girl for labour exploitation.
Joyce Lawrence, 43, of 306 Track X, Plantation Grove, was read three indictable charges by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan yesterday.
The first charge stated that Lawrence, between July 1, 2014 and December 12, 2014, at a nightclub, at Aishalton, South Rupununi, engaged in trafficking in persons, whereby she recruited and harboured the girl by means of threats for the purpose of labour exploitation.
The second allegation was that Lawrence, between December 12 and December 24, 2014, at Samatta Point, Grove, East Bank Demerara, engaged in trafficking in persons, in that she recruited, transported and harboured the girl by means of threats for the purpose of labour exploitation.
The third charge stated that between February 1 and February 8, 2015, at Samatta Point, Grove, Lawrence, being the employer of the girl, knowingly confiscated her identification card. The girl is now 16 years.
Prosecutor Deniro Jones related that in 2014, the accused took the victim to her club in Aishalton without obtaining consent. He further stated that Lawrence later took the girl to her home, took away her ID card and locked her away. When police visited the home, he said, they found that the teen had been impregnated. She is reportedly in the custody of the Social Protection Ministry.
Attorney Euclin Gomes, who appeared on behalf of the accused, told the court that the allegations being levelled against his client were as a result of high discipline standards Lawrence set in the home. He further stated that Lawrence was only acting in the child’s best interest when she moved her from Aishalton to Grove to enrol her into school. Gomes said that the girl’s father, whom he noted was in court, has known where she was for the past two years and has visited occasionally. Lawrence was granted $250,000 bail on each charge of human trafficking and $150,000 bail for the charge of confiscating an ID card.
The trafficking matter which allegedly occurred in South Rupununi has been adjourned to May 30 and transferred to the Lethem Magistrate’s Court. The other two matters have been transferred to the Providence Magistrate’s Court for March 22.
