Less than five months after he was sentenced to four years in prison for trafficking a 14-year-old girl ex-police corporal Huford David is out on the streets having been granted bail by acting Chief Justice Ian Chang following an appeal of his sentence, one of his lawyers Latchmi Rahamat said yesterday.
In November last year, David, who was a serving policeman at the time the charge was instituted in 2013, was sentenced by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry after she read the evidence given and took into consideration all the facts presented.
The convict’s lawyers then moved to the High Court to file the appeal as was indicated by another of his lawyers, Peter Hugh, on the day of the sentencing.
According to Rahamat, they filed the appeal within 14 days of the sentence but it was only about three weeks ago that David was bailed. While she could not remember the amount of bail granted the lawyer said her client was in custody for a few months since he could not have afforded the amount of bail initially set. The lawyers then returned to the court and according to Rahamat, Justice Chang wrote to Magistrate Sewnarine-Beharry requesting her memorandum of reasons. The lawyer said this was still to be submitted, but since the matter is still pending she was unable to give further details.
David, who is still before the Magistrate Court on a charge of raping the said 14-year-old girl as it is alleged that he had sex with her multiple time as he exploited her at his shop, was found guilty of keeping the teenager for the purpose of exploitation between January 1 and January 31, 2013, at Kumakuma Creek, Mazaruni River.
It was the police’s case that between January 1 and January 31, 2013, David contacted the 14-year-old and her sister and told them he needed two girls to work with him; one to work in a bar and the other to do the business. While her sister refused, the 14-year-old girl agreed to go with David.
David was reported to have taken the girl to Parika and then to Bartica, from where he transported her to Kumakuma Creek, Mazaruni River. It was at this point also where David explained to the girl that she would collect gold and money and give it to a shopkeeper.
As a result of nine sexual encounters, the girl accumulated 12 pennyweights of gold and $160,000 cash, which she later gave to the shopkeeper. A few days later, the girl insisted on having her gold and money but when she approached the shopkeeper he told her that he did not have it. She then went to David, who showed her a book, which stated that she only worked for six pennyweights of gold and $130,000 cash but he too told her that he did not have either.
The girl became annoyed and escaped. She later made a report to the Guyana Women Miners Organisation (GWMO), following which investigations were launched into the matter and David was located, arrested and charged.
The 14-year-old was among four girls rescued from Tiger Creek Backdam, at Puruni, in Region Seven by members of the GWMO, who found them being held against their will by shop owners.
David being granted bail following his sentencing follows a similar turn of events of the 2013 conviction of a Candacy Anderson and her common-law husband Wesley Hart of Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara. The two were sentenced by Magistrate Adela Nagamootoo at the Reliance Magistrate’s Court, who found them guilty of human trafficking in 2013. But they were granted bail shortly after, following appeal and according to President of GWMO are back in the interior operating a shop. The court had heard that on April 15, 2012 Anderson and Hart engaged in trafficking in persons, in that they recruited four girls by means of fraud for the purpose of exploitation. It is not clear if the couple’s appeal is still pending.
