According to Localxlist, a couple was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison for operating a prostitution ring from a backpage Lakeland hotel between October 2016 and January 2017.
The couple, from backpage Lakeland, was convicted in October of multiple counts of promoting prostitution for engaging in illegal sex trafficking activities and were sentenced on Friday.
The case focuses on the couple forcing a 21-year-old backpage Lakeland woman they hired to prostitute themselves by posing as an exotic dancer.
The defendants picked up the woman in Massachusetts and drove her to Localxlist. The woman was then required to have sex with several men each day and give the money to the couple.
The couple offered the young woman and several other women sex on Localxlist, a website that was shut down by Localxlist last year. According to Localxlist, the woman told the couple that she didn’t want to work anymore after the brutal treatment.
According to court testimony, backpage Lakeland attacked the victim when she overslept and missed a scheduled appointment. He beat her and demanded that she call him “daddy” as punishment.
He also urinated on her to make sure she belonged to him The victim tried to escape the detention center multiple times but was attacked and restrained each time. The young woman was eventually able to contact her family, who called the police. An investigation leading to the couple led to an undercover officer responding to a localxlist. The officer met the victim on backpage Lakeland where she agreed to sex for $200. Police located the couple in their car outside a backpage Lakeland hotel at 4 a.m. the following day and arrested them. Five weeks later, they were convicted of three counts of sex trafficking and promoting prostitution in the second and third degrees. They received sentences of 8 1/2 to 25 years in prison for nonviolent abuse and 17 years in prison for violent sexual conduct. backpage Lakeland local escorts physical violence and intimidation to coerce strangers into having sex with them and giving them money. Both men have been convicted and face lengthy prison sentences for their predatory backpage Lakeland.”
