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‘Strip club’ owner on suspended sentence accused of human trafficking
The Diamond night club owner, who was recently sentenced to a four-year suspended sentence for an illegal gun, has been charged again, this time for human trafficking.
Freeman Fordyce, 41, of Lot 99 Collingswood Avenue, Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara, is accused of trafficking two Venezuelans for sexual exploitation at his club.
Yesterday the matter was called in the courtroom of Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
However, Fordyce was not present to answer to the charges; hence a summons was issued for him to attend court. Hence, Police Prosecutor Neville Jeffers told the court that Fordyce’s whereabouts is presently unknown.
He added that Fordyce was released on his own recognizance (self-bail) in relation to the new charges, and was instructed to report to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), pending his arraignment in court.
The court heard that Fordyce failed to show up at CID and police are now looking for him.
The matter has been adjourned until March 14.
According to information, police carried out a raid at the club in Diamond last month, which lead to the arrest of 15 women, all said to be foreign nationals.
Freeman Fordyce
This was after a video circulated on social media, showed a woman jumping over a locked gate to get into the Diamond Hotel and Night Club compound.
The woman was being assisted by four of her friends who were on the other side of the fence. They were holding up the security barbed wire so that the woman could have gained entry.
Hours after the video hit social media, police raided the compound and detained the 15 women, whom investigators suspected to be victims of trafficking in persons (TIP).
The woman, Dailyn Garcia, 25, a Venezuelan, who was seen climbing the fence, was later charged for overstaying her time in Guyana. She was fined $30,000 for the offence or in default six months imprisonment.
Upon paying the fine or spending the time, Garcia will be escorted to the nearest port of exit and deported to her homeland.
In January, Fiona Hopkinson, an employee of the night club, was charged for trafficking four Venezuelan women and forcing them to work as strippers.
She was also charged for withholding the women’s travel documents.
In 2018, Hopkinson and Rodwell Dempster, another employee of the entity, were jointly charged for trafficking five Venezuelans for sexual exploitation at the same night club and hotel.
Fordyce was handed the suspended sentence recently by Principal Magistrate Faith McGusty on the illegal gun and ammo charge, after he was found guilty. The Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions has since appealed the Magistrate’s decision.
Fordyce is also currently on trial for assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.
He was charged after a video footage showed him (Fordyce) resisting being searched and then punching Inspector Prem Narine in the face.
The police subsequently removed a number of women, including Venezuelans, from the premises. The ranks reportedly searched Fordyce’s club while conducting a TIP investigation.
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