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Predators from North and South Carolina traveled to York County looking for sex with children as young as 10, deputies said Monday. Deputies said 10 people were arrested in “Operation Home Alone,” which was underway from March 10-14. The operation took place at several different spots, including an abandoned home in Fort Mill, South Carolina, deputies said.
“Seven of the 10 arrestees, dubbed as travelers, actually came to the residence or attempted to come to the residence of the operation,” deputies said. “The ages of the children they thought they were coming to have sex with were 10 to 17 years old.”
York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson described the web as having “holes” and “crannies” that can be used for people to prey on children.
Chris Bates was 16 years old when he started selling nude photos of himself on the internet to adult men who pressured him for more and more images.
The demands snowballed into riskier requests, and within months the gay Connecticut teen was trading sex for dinners out, designer sneakers and other luxuries.
Bates says he was lured by the attention and what appeared to be easy money. He secretly hoped his financially struggling single mother, or anybody, would notice what was happening and protect him.
No one did — and within two years, the tall, lanky youth was living alone in a dilapidated apartment, prostituting himself to get by. His home — and an array of hotel rooms in Connecticut and Massachusetts — became a “revolving door” of sex buyers.
“I really thought I was the bad person selling myself,’’ said Bates, now 26 and living in Worcester. “I didn’t realize that I was a victim.”
Human trafficking has become a major problem around the world, but students at one Georgia middle school are developing a plan to help combat the issue.
Tucker Middle School was named a semifinalist in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest, which encourages students to solve real-world issues using STEM. The idea is that the device can be installed like a fire alarm in airplane bathrooms that triggers a silent alarm to alert flight attendants, pilots, and the authorities.
The device will also release an adhesive for the victim to wear so that they can be tracked after getting off the plane.
HOUSTON – A 26-year-old Houston man has been ordered to prison following his convictions of sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to do so, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery.
Trevien Thomas aka Triggah pleaded guilty Jan. 6.
Today, U.S. District Judge Nancy F. Atlas handed Thomas a 300-month sentence. At the hearing, the court heard a statement from the victim’s mother and sister as well as letters from the victim and others detailing the emotional, physical and financial impact of what Thomas did.
On Thursday, Fayetteville police arrested nine people at the hotel. They charged eight of them with prostitution and one person with pimping.
“The hotels were very cooperative with providing us assistance,” Myers explained. Officers selected the hotels at random.
Elsewhere in the county, Peachtree City police conducted a sting of their own. Officers arrested 12 people at a hotel, charging nine of them with prostitution and three people with pimping.
In February 2020, Vestavia Hills police were able to rescue four children from trafficking and arrest the man suspected of trafficking them.
Capt. Johnny Evans with the Vestavia Hills Police Department said without the training they received as part of being named a “Human TraffickingFree Zone” in November 2019, they might not have been able to spot what was happening.
As the city continues to train its employees on how to spot and prevent human trafficking, the Police Department is seeing success in cracking down on these cases.
“Our officers now, when they’re dealing with people, know to look for certain things,” Evans said. “We’ve really been able to notice more of the signs.”
Becoming a “Human TraffickingFree Zone” is part of the Child Trafficking Solutions Project, formed in response to the passage of the state’s Safe Harbor Act, created by former state Rep. Jack Williams from Vestavia Hills.
A federal grand jury has indicted a Hollywood man and a Miami Gardens woman for the alleged sex trafficking of a 16-year-old girl.
Frantz Mersier, 30, and Paula Barboza, 25, are accused of offering a place to stay to the teenager who was a runaway from a group home, prosecutors said. According to court documents, Mersier took in the girl Dec. 6 and said she could sleep on the couch. He eventually had sex with the teen and set her up for prostitution in the three days that followed.
Barboza took naked photographs of the girl and posted them on websites known to advertise for prostitution. Then, Mersier and Barboza sold the teen for sex to four different men in Broward for $100 each. On Dec. 9, the girl called a relative and law enforcement came to get her later that day.
Sixteen missing children have been rescued after a month long operation by the US Marshals Service.
At least four of the recovered youngsters were connected to child sex trafficking in the Philadelphia area, officials say.
Authorities began Operation Safeguard on 5 February when a marshals task force took over 26 missing children cases at the request of law enforcement agencies. The marshals said that the children were considered some of the most at risk cases in the Philadelphia area, based on sex trafficking, exploitation, sexual abuse, physical abuse and medical or mental health conditions.
BC staff have been angered by a warning in an internal memo against using the word paedophile to describe a child sex predator.
The email sent by a senior producer told staff in the Tasmanian bureau to avoid the term paedophile even in cases where offenders had a long history of abusing children to avoid ‘marginalising’ anyone.
The justification used was advice from Tasmania’s Sexual Assault Support Service (SASS), which told an ABC reporter that use of the word could stop abusers seeking treatment therefore making it more likely they’d continue offending.
Moncton’s YWCA is beginning a new project that aims to raise awareness of human trafficking — and prevent it. The Brave YW project is for girls, women, and non-binary youth aged 11 to 19.
Participants will get help with access to housing, food, mentors, counseling, and training in things like digital literacy and online safety.
They’ll also help to develop resources such as safety plans and guides about warning signs and how to help a friend who is being exploited.
Finding new and innovative ways to combat the demand for purchased sex, raise awareness to this nationwide epidemic, and provide safe environments for victims.
