Another shopkeeper remanded over human trafficking

Another interior shopkeeper was yesterday arraigned on human trafficking charges, including trying to exploit a 16-year-old girl.

Sequila Glynn, 41, of Fourth Avenue, Caneville, East Bank Demerara, was refused bail and remanded to prison by Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

Glynn was charged with knowingly transporting a 26-year-old woman to Issano, Region Seven, for the purpose of exploiting her into prostitution on May 15.

She was also charged with trafficking a 16-year-old girl, by means of abuse of power, for the purpose of exploitation, to Issano, Region Seven, between May 15 and July 7.

Glynn pleaded not guilty to the charges, which stemmed from a report to the police by the President of the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO) Simona Broomes.

Attorney Roysdale Forde, who represented Glynn, however, asked for reasonable bail to be granted but police prosecutor Ramsahoye Rambajue objected to bail, citing the seriousness and prevalence of the offence. He also told the court that there is a possibility that Glynn may tamper with witnesses in the case.

As a result, Glynn was remanded to prison until September 20, when the matters will be called again.

She was the second interior shopkeeper to be charged this week with human trafficking after Ann Marie Carter was charged on Monday, having already  been charged in June with forcing two girls into prostitution in the Tiger Creek Backdam. Carter was also charged on Wednesday with assaulting Broomes.

All the charges against her stemmed from an operation conducted in April by the GWMO, which rescued four girls, ages 14, 15, 17 and 18, from the Tiger Creek area.