Cop jailed, woman gets less time in sex ring case

Joseph Peters, a convicted constable of police, was yesterday ordered jailed for four years and the mother of a girl who was tied up in the same crime of extortion with Peters, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In October, Peters was found guilty of demanding with menace, while, the woman had pleaded guilty to the offence for trying to extort money from a businessman who allegedly had sex with her 16-year-old daughter. The offence carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
In sentencing the duo yesterday, Justice Iain Morley said he gave the policeman a longer sentence than the woman because he ought to have known and done better based on his police training and oath to uphold the law.
Additionally, the Judge noted that the cop did not admit his role in the crime so a jury had to sit through the case and determine his fate.
Prior to the mother being sentenced, her daughter who was the alleged sex-crime victim, pleaded with the Court not to imprison the woman, saying that she was concerned about the future of her younger siblings.
The woman’s name is being withheld since the allegations involve a sexual offence and the law prohibits the publication of any information that would identify the victim of a sex crime. Meanwhile, that sex crime has not yet gone through the courts.
In October, during the trial in the extortion case, the underage girl explained to the Court, how her mother, Peters and his adult step daughter planned the crime to get money from the businessman in May 2017.
The plan was that the underage girl and the stepdaughter would have sex with the businessman in a condominium. Peters’ role was to roam around and wait for the businessman, the underage girl and the step daughter to come out of the property.
Then Peters, dressed in his police uniform, would confront the businessman and inform him that the girl was underage.
The mother of the underage girl would be waiting close by and Peters would call her to the scene. This was done and the woman showed up and acted aggressively and made noise on the compound, frightening the businessman who reportedly did not want to be exposed.
A maintenance man who was on the compound at the time of the incident, also testified in court. He said the police officer handcuffed the businessman and told the mother to “charge him big, charge him big, because he [has] money.”
The woman demanded $600,000 but the businessman allegedly said he didn’t have that kind of money.
The maintenance man said when the businessman turned to the officer, the cop told him, “She wicked. Go back and negotiate and she will come down.”
The mother and the businessman eventually agreed on a settlement figure of $200,000.
An SUV worth just over $90,000 was given to the mother in her name as well as a further $18,500 in cash. The settlement figure was reduced even further to $150,000 and the balance was to be paid in instalments of $9,000.
However, no further cash was paid.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)