KINGSTON, Jamaica – A Guyana court has imposed the maximum sentence on a couple for luring four girls to a remote jungle area and forcing them to work as prostitutes in a mining camp.
Wesley Hart and common-law wife Candace Anderson were each sentenced to five years for taking the girls to Guyana’s Cuyuni region to work as prostitutes. The children’s exact ages were not immediately available.
The girls were rescued by an association for women miners. Simona Broomes heads the association that travels to Guyana’s mining camps to rescue underage girls working as prostitutes.
Broomes said Sunday that her group’s members were at court “every day to give evidence” on the case.
The US State Department this year honored Broomes for her work in fighting human trafficking in the South American country.