Man in rare sexual exploitation case wanted by court

A warrant of arrest has been issued by the Waigani Committal Court for a Chimbu man currently facing a rare sexual exploitation and human trafficking case.

Magistrate Cosmas Bidar issued the warrant for Willie Gare on Thursday after he failed to return to court on the date he suggested.

This comes after the court on August 31 ruled it had overwhelming evidence to commit Gare to stand trial at the National Court.

He was supposed to return to court on Thursday and make a response to the court's findings, which is his section 96 statement. However, he failed to do so.

An application by police prosecution to issue a warrant for his arrest was later granted by the Court for the Kundiawa resident, who flies into Port Moresby for his case.

His bail has been set aside and he is expected to return to court on Oct 27.

The 42-year-old Gumine district man was allegedly involved in recruiting and transporting young 11 Motuans to Kundiawa town in Chimbu.

It is alleged he later made them work in a guest house. It also involved other related activities which amount to sexual exploitation.

Gare is a businessman who was arrested on Nov 9 last year for unlawfully confining and exploiting nine Motuan girls, including two men, between August 14 and 29 last year.

The allegations stem from him flying the youths from their Motuan village to Kundiawa last year to perform at the opening of a new lodge on August 14, 2015. The arrangement was funded by Gare after an alleged agreement with their families.

However, soon after their performance, they were later allegedly forced to drink and entertain the guests at the lodge, with some forced to the extent of sleeping with guests.

This allegedly continued over a period of two weeks. During that period, one of the girls was allegedly sexually assaulted without consent by Gare.

Police also alleged the defendant, Gare, told the girls to work hard and engage in sexual activities with guests and customers at the lodge in order to make money for their plane tickets back to Port Moresby.

Kept against their will and closely monitored, three of the girls somehow managed to escape from the lodge and went to the Kerowagi Police Barracks where one of them called her parents in Port Moresby.

A report was later made and the Mt Hagen-based mobile squad and officers from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) rescued the remaining victims from the lodge on August 29, 2015. They were flown back to Port Moresby the next day.

Author: 
Sally Pokiton