SC man guilty of forcing women into sex trafficking to spend next 30 years in prison
A Greenville man who pleaded guilty to charges that he forced women to engage in a sex trafficking operation in South Carolina is going to prison for 30 years.
Aaron T. Simmons was sentenced Tuesday in federal court following last November’s guilty plea.
The 26-year-old Simmons used physical beatings, threats, intimidation and psychological manipulation to coerce three people to “engage in repeated commercial sex acts’’ over a year’s time beginning in August 2019, according to a news release this week from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The offenses occurred in the Greenville area. In addition to sex trafficking involving an adult, Simmons provided a 17-year-old “for commercial sex acts’’ from August 2019 to November 2019, the justice department said.
““This significant prison sentence reflects the seriousness of the defendant’s brutal conduct inflicted on victims, including a minor, for many months” according to a statement from Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who is with the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “The sexual exploitation of victims in this manner robs them of their freedom, dignity and sense of security, and stands to scar them for life. Such venal, rapacious conduct is unacceptable in our society.’’
Clark and Adair Boroughs, the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, said they are committed to stopping sex trafficking.
“Our office will continue to bring every resource we have to bear to stop human trafficking in South Carolina,” Boroughs said in the news release.
An attorney for Simmons could not be reached Wednesday.
