Robin Newton MBE MLA

ROBIN Newton East Belfast DUP MLA has expressed a feeling of being let down at the light sentences handed out to former brothel keeper Rong Chen, her husband Jason Hinton and retired policeman Simon Dempsey. These sentences when set against the huge amount of money made from illegal people trafficking will not deter others. 

Robin Newton said,
 
“These three people set out to illegally traffick human beings into Northern Ireland and to move them around brothels making them available for perverted use by men for money.
 
This despicable use of young women who lived in fear and constantly under threat deserves to be punished by the sentences reflecting the full horrors of the crime. The victims were forced into prostitution in slave like conditions and will never fully forget the abuses to which they have been subjected.
 
It is scandalous that the prostitution ring organiser Rong Chen is likely to serve only three and a half years for the sexual exploitation and destroying the lives of at least four young women. That her husband, Jason Hinton, and willing accomplice walked free from the courts with a community service of only 220 hours will be viewed by the public as shameful. Simon Dempsey’s sentence of only nine months for aiding and abetting prostitution will send no shivers of fear up the spines of the criminals who engage in such disgusting abuse of women.
 
Society owes it to those who are trafficked, battered and abused that when their evil exploiters are caught the shocking way in which the victims have been made use of will be seen in the courts sentencing. Society will judge these sentences as insufficient.”