Auckland couple flew underage teen into city to work as prostitute

NZ Herald 10 September 2018
Family First Comment: Sex trafficking and under- age prostitution – sadly in our own backyard. But when an industry is normalised and promoted, what do you expect!?

Police were alerted to a couple pimping out a 15-year-old after the girl’s mum discovered on social media she’d been flown from Christchurch to work in central Auckland brothels.

Taton Sebastian Smith, 35, and Tahleicia Elizabeth Seil, 25, were sentenced last Friday in the Auckland District Court by Judge Eddie Paul for assisting someone under 18 to provide sexual services.

Smith was jailed for two years and 10 months, while Seil will serve nine months’ home detention after they had earlier pleaded guilty.

Earlier this year, the Herald revealed one of New Zealand’s most sickening criminal cases and just the third conviction for slave trading in the country’s legal history.

Kasmeer Lata was jailed for six years and 11 months in April for keeping her daughter as a sex slave, turning her Auckland home into a brothel, and selling the 15-year-old to men some 1000 times over a two-year period.

Justice Matthew Muir said at Lata’s sentencing: “New Zealand’s courts will not [tolerate] the prostitution of children.”

Her partner, Avneensh Sehgal, who attempted to flee to India, was also imprisoned.

And just last month, the Herald reported on a Lower Hutt woman who planned to sexually exploit her 10-year-old granddaughter to sex criminal Andrew Davie.

Davie was jailed for three years and five months, while the grandma was sentenced to three years and three months in prison.
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