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T&T’s 1st convicted human trafficker disappears after removing monitor bracelet

It was a bittersweet moment for the National Security Ministry and Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) yesterday, as despite successfully achieving the first-ever conviction under this country’s human trafficking laws, the perpetrator broke free of his electronic monitor bracelet and is now on the run.
At a hastily called media conference yesterday, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds started off with the good news that Anthony Michael Smith was on Thursday convicted of five counts of human trafficking under the Trafficking in Persons Act, which became law in 2012.

Smith, a local bar owner, was arrested in 2015 after he was accused of forcing a then 16-year-old Trinidadian girl to commit acts of prostitution, after she responded to a newspaper ad seeking employment. He was also charged with the sexual and physical assault of the victim.

Woman Police Corporal Dane-Marie Marshall, who was lauded by Hinds for her “exquisite” police work in the apprehension and subsequent conviction of Smith, explained how the arrest transpired.“The law provided that our children be safeguarded from places like these, so we proceeded to find this child with a view to ascertaining why the passport was at this location. It took some time and in November 2015, we found the child. We were able to interview the child and secure and record statements in relation to what occurred during the period she was in the custody of her trafficker.”

Halliwell...

Sad but then this is T&T..anything goes...

Gosh wonder if this happened in Canada ..we will soon know..