Policeman in Trinidad convicted on human trafficking charges

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – A 63-year-old police officer in Trinidad will return to the High Court on March 28 for sentencing after he was found guilty on human trafficking charges.

The policeman, Valentine Eastman, was charged in 2013.

It was disclosed that between March 3 and 25, of that year he harboured Colombian women at Princes Town in south central Trinidad for the purpose of exploitation, in the form of prostitution.

The women were then taken to locations in Vistabella and Chase Village.

Eastman was found guilty on two of these charges but was acquitted on the charge of rape.

Fourteen witnesses, including two of the women, testified during the trial before Justice George Busby.

Eastman was remanded and will return to court on March 28.

Eastman’s co-accused, who faced six counts of transporting persons for exploitation under the Trafficking in Persons Act, was acquitted on January 13, after the State discontinued its case against him.

The man was charged in April 2013 based on allegations from three Colombian women who claimed they were trafficked into Trinidad for prostitution.

The prosecution alleged that he transported the women from their apartment to the Santa Maria Hotel in Chaguanas in Central Trinidad, where they worked as prostitutes, and to the Hawaii Hotel in San Fernando.

Eastman and the co-accused had gone on trial in November 2024 before Justice Busby.

The women refused to testify in person or virtually at the trial and the State sought to admit prior statements and evidence recorded in the magistrates’ court, but the defence team for the co-accused contested the application.

The court ultimately rejected the prosecution’s application.

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