Jailed for 472 years: Sex trafficker Brock Franklin
A U.S. court has sentenced a man to 472 years in prison for sex trafficking children, a court official said on Friday.
Brock Franklin, 31, was the leader of a human trafficking ring that reportedly recruited its victims, several women and girls, on Facebook.
The gang then drugged them and sold them online for sex that took place in hotels.
He was found guilty in a Colorado state court earlier this year on 30 counts including human trafficking of a minor, human trafficking of an adult and soliciting of child prostitution.
His sentence is being described as the longest in U.S. history for a case of human trafficking.
‘A 400-year sentence sends a strong message across the country that we’re not going to tolerate this kind of violence,’ Janet Drake, a spokeswoman with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, told FOX 31.
‘I can’t begin to even explain what he did to my life,’ one of the victims told local media. ‘He deserves every single minute in those walls.’
The sex trafficking ring counted seven members, four of whom have already been sentenced, it was reported.
Among them was David Fullenwiley Jones, who received and 18-year sentence after pleading guilty to human trafficking for sexual servitude.
Another was Isis Debreaux, who was handed a four-year deferred sentence after she pleaded guilty to contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Franklin used violence and narcotics to control his victims and set rules they had to follow, including daily earning quotas.
Members of Franklin’s ring Isis Debreaux, left, and right, David Fullenwiley Jones
He would then take all of the money earned to support himself and further his criminal business.
One juvenile victim, known as D.Y., told authorities that Franklin recruited her between April and July 2015 after persuading her to leave her parents’ home.
The victim said that during this time Franklin supplied her with ecstasy and repeatedly punched her in the face, causing serious bodily harm to her right eye and her ears.
Another juvenile victim, known as C.W., who was recruited by Franklin’s ring for around five weeks between January and February 2015, said the leader required her to perform oral sex acts on him in front of other gang members.
Both victims said gang members would encourage them to advertise themselves for sexual services on classified ad service Backpage.com.
One adult victim said that Franklin used the GPS on her cell phone to monitor her location and, on more than one occasion, choked, pistol whipped and forced her to have sex against her will.
Anti-slavery group Polaris said it had received reports of more than 22,000 sex-trafficking cases in the United States over the last decade.
Globally, more than 40 million people are victims of human trafficking, according to the International Labour Organization. An estimated 4 million of them are forced into sexual exploitation.