Kingston man gets 10 years for tricking teen girl into prostitution

A Kingston man who used social media to lure a teenage girl into prostitution under the guise that she was being recruited for promotional dancing has been sentenced to a total of ten years in prison.

Devon Scott was sentenced to nine years in prison for human trafficking and one year for the offence of living off the earnings of prostitution, according to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).

The sentences are to be served at the same time, which means Scott will spend nine years behind bars.

Scott was found guilty following a trial that ended on June 19.

He had been charged for trafficking in relation to an 18-year-old girl and another, who was 16 years old.

While Scott was found guilty in relation to the 18-year-old girl, he was freed of all charges in relation to the 16-year-old.

The trial included disturbing evidence that in 2016, the 18-year-old, poverty-stricken girl was lured from her rural Jamaica house and taken to Scott’s Kingston 10 home where she engaged in sexual activities with multiple men over a four-month period.

"The trafficker informed the victim of the following arrangements for sexual engagement with men: $1,000 for ten minutes, $2,000 for fifteen minutes, $3,000 for twenty minutes and $5,000 for half an hour,” said a statement from the ODPP.

Prosecutors said Scott also told the victim, that half of the money made would go to her and the other half would go to him, the trafficker.

According to prosecutors Sharon Millwood-Moore and Syleen O’Gilvie, the teen’s ordeal began in early 2016 when she was recruited by Scott and the mother of his child through Facebook to engage in promotional dancing.

He picked up the teen at a plaza in Spanish Town shortly after and drove her to his home where she saw several other young girls.

The teen was placed in an upstairs room before Scott and his baby mother purchased “skimpy outfits” for them.

"According to the evidence, the accused/trafficker told the victim that the other girls at his house did promotional dancing at bars and other ‘business’ on the side, which meant, they had sex with men for money."

According to the evidence, men would visit the house to have sex with the teen while on other occasions Scott would accompany her to have sexual intercourse with men at different locations.

"The victim gave evidence at trial that she was tricked into leaving her home, based on the belief that she was being hired as a promotional dancer, but instead, was lured into being a sex worker upon her arrival at the premises located in Kingston 10," said the statement released by the ODPP today.

“She had sex with men two times daily, seven days of the week,” said a prosecutor.

The teen complained, too, that sometimes she was taken to places to dance and received three-quarters of the money charged for dancing while Scott kept the remainder.

“For the sexual services, the accused/trafficker collected money and gave the victim the agreed portion for her services. However, the accused/trafficker began making arrangements for services to be given by the victim and had not paid her the price previously declared.”

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