NEWS
BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Desk co-ordinator henryp@jamaicaobserver.com
Saturday, September 17, 2011
THE prosecution on Thursday revealed more damning information against the exotic club owner who allegedly forced seven foreign nationals, including a 16-year-old girl, into prostitution.
The allegations, including witness tampering and death threats, were made in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court, where accused Hermalinda Parker made her second appearance.
Parker, her husband Anthony and her daughter Lyn Scantlebury are facing charges of trafficking in persons, money laundering and conspiracy.
The charges stem from allegations that Parker recruited women from Panama and the teenager, who is from Guyana, to work in her exotic club Platinum Movement, then forced them into prostitution.
Anthony Parker and Scantlebury were arrested last year. Mrs Parker, who was in the Bahamas while the arrests were being made, was arrested on September 1 this year at the Norman Manley International Airport when she returned to the island.
The prosecution is contending that she was attempting to avoid arrest by delaying her return to Jamaica.
Thursday, in outlining the allegations against her, Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Lisa Palmer-Hamilton alleged that the accused had "made contact" with the witnesses (the dancers) and tried to discuss the case with them, which she said was "clearly an attempt to dissuade" them from giving evidence.
Allegations were also made that Parker, when her husband and Scantlebury were arrested, telephoned the mother of the 16-year-old daughter in Guyana and threatened to have the teen killed for causing the arrest of her daughter and husband.
The most sensational allegations arose out of an accusation by the 16-year-old girl, whose complaints to the police led to the arrest of the three.
On May 25 last year, it is alleged, she brought the teen into the island under the guise of giving her a vacation. The teen was allegedly told that two immigration officers would clear her at the airport. It is also alleged that the girl was met by Parker and her busband at the airport and taken to the couple's home in upper St Andrew.
At the home she met other girls and was some time later allegedly told that they worked as "hookers for Mr Parker". Allegedly, the teen was later forced by Mrs Parker into selling her body in order to repay the expense of bringing her to Jamaica and maintaining her.
When the teen started dancing, she is said to have wanted out, but was allegedly told by Mrs Parker that she had to recover the $89,000 plane ticket cost, $180,000 for clothing and food among other costs and in order to recover these costs she would have to have sex with the club patrons.
Her travel documents, along with those of the other girls, were allegedly taken by the accused.
The teen was eventually rescued by passersby with whom she shared her story. A sting operation was set up and the busts made.
But Thursday, defence attorney George Soutar, in applying for bail, denied the allegations against his client. He said the accusations were all lies made up by the teen after a falling-out with his client and the other girls at the home.
Soutar also pointed out that the other accused, who are facing the same charges, have been previously offered bail.
But Magistrate Maxine Ellis denied her application for bail, saying that there were concerns that she was a flight risk and that she might attempt to interfere with the witnesses. The court was also concerned that Parker was a citizen of Panama by birth.
The accused will next appear in the magistrate's court on September 26 when her case will be transferred to the Home Circuit Court where she will join her husband and daughter for trial in December.
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