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Ruling to be delivered against Rupununi bar owner accused of TIP
Magistrate Allan Wilson is set to make his ruling on a no case submission in the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) case against Rupununi Restaurant and Bar owner, Joyce Lawrence, on March 19, 2019.
It is alleged that between July 1 and December 12, 2014, at Makawau Night Club, Aishalton, South Rupununi, in the Rupununi Magisterial District, Joyce Lawrence, engaged in TIP, where she recruited and harboured a child by means of threat for the purpose of labour exploitation.
At the Lethem Magistrate’s Court where the case is being heard, the child testified that she commenced working with Lawrence at Makawau Restaurant and Bar in July 2014 until December 2014 and that she was 16 years old.
The Lethem Magistrate’s Court, Region 9
The Prosecution’s Attorney-at-Law, stationed at the Ministry of Social Protection, Kevin Morgan, explained that under section 3(2) of the Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act, Cap. 10:06 the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of any child, or the giving of payments or benefits to obtain the consent of a person having control of a child, for the purpose of exploitation shall constitute trafficking in persons irrespective of whether any of the means described in section 2(k) have been established.
Morgan urged the Court to accept that the Prosecution need not prove threat as a means of committing the offence.
Morgan further argued that the term harbouring is to be given its ordinary English meaning which means ‘to keep’.
He urged the Court to accept that the child was harboured or kept or sheltered at the restaurant and bar for the purpose of exploitation.
During the child’s evidence, it was revealed that she was asked to work for only three days until she found a job. However, the child remained working until December 2014 with no leave, no days off, was paid below the national minimum wage and worked from 6:00 hrs. to midnight most days.
The child’s father also testified that during the period July 2014 and December2014 he visited the restaurant and bar and observed his daughter selling alcohol and food.
Following supporting evidence from the laws of Guyana, Morgan concluded that there is sufficient evidence that the child was exploited or worked under exploitative conditions, which the defendant engineered.
In his submission to the Court, Attorney- At-Law Nigel Hughes contended that the evidence of the virtual complainant disclosed that at no time during the aforementioned period was she harboured by Joyce Lawrence at Aishalton and no threats were made to her by Joyce Lawrence.
He said to the court that the child was free to act on all occasions and even after it was discovered, that she agreed to work with the defendant to pay for the unaccounted sale of beverages entrusted to her by the defendant.
This matter was discussed with the child’s family who also agreed that she would work to pay this sum.
Joyce Lawrence was previously sentenced in September 2016 by the Chief Magistrate in relation to a similar trafficking offence but never served time. The Director of Public Prosecutions subsequently appealed that decision which is still awaiting a date to be heard.
Following the arguments, the Magistrate adjourned the case and will give his ruling on March 19.
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