Father forced girls into prostitution

Press, 19 July 1983, Page 6

Father forced girls into prostitution

PA Auckland A man who forced his two teenage daughters into prostitution, was jailed for three years when he appeared for sentence in the District Court at Henderson yesterday. “You have no moral sense at all, and your obligations as a father seem to avoid you completely,” Judge M. Brown told the father, aged 46, before passing sentence.

The man, whose name and address were suppressed, was handcuffed as he stood in the dock.

Last week, he pleaded guilty to a charge of keeping a brothel, and another of living off the earnings of prostitution. The Court heard then how the man, his wife and another woman forced the daughters, aged 14 and 15, into prostitution. The 517,000 which the parents earned from them was put towards buying a 4-hectare block. Defence counsel, Mr C.

Podwin, said the defendant offered as an explanation the fact that his children had been sexually active from an early age. Mr Podwin said that some time ago the family had discussed securing the girls’ futures. He said the defendant maintained that the girls made their decision to enter into the “business venture” of their own free will and that no coercion was used. Mr Podwin said the defendant acknowledged he was wrong in law, but could not see that what he had done was morally wrong. “He tells me that his sole motive was to see that his children would be well provided for,” said Mr Podwin, who added that the .defendant’s value system, particularly over the alleged offences, seemed to be somewhat different from the norm.

The Judge said it had been decided “quite cynically” to carry out the ven-

ture. He said the matter was detected by four undercover policemen who had to pay a $l5O entrance fee to the defendant’s home. He said the defendant was on an invalid benefit. But he had two racehorses and ament worth $2OO, a _ y and equipment worth $5OO, and a third share of a 4ha block worth $64,000. “So the picture of a man trying to earn some money to pay for food completely disappears. I am quite sure you are the instigator,” the Judge said. The wife, aged 47, pleaded guilty to the same charges as her husband and last week was sentenced to 18 months jail. A woman, aged 36, described by the Judge as the defendant’s “concubine,” who admitted keeping a brothel, living off the earnings of prostitution and performing an indecent act on the 14-year-old, was jailed for six months.