A Flatbush man will serve ten years in prison for sex trafficking two girls out of his E. 29th Street apartment and for attempted criminal possession of a weapon.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun hit 24-year-old Hakeem Bennett with an eight-year sentence for sex trafficking, a two-year sentence for the gun charge, and five years’ post-release supervision on Wednesday following his guilty pleas, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
According to an NYPD investigation, Bennett repeatedly sold a 15-year-old girl and a missing 17-year-old girl for sex over the course of several weeks in 2019.
Bennett would post his number in escort advertisements and pretend to be the girls over the phone before sending the victims to meet customers at an agreed upon location, prosecutors said.
Police received a tip about the scheme in September, 2019 from the FBI — who had heard about it from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children — prompting an undercover officer to call Bennett and set up an appointment in early October.
According to prosecutors, the cop met Bennett, the 15-year-old, the 17-year-old, and an unidentified woman at Bennett’s E. 29th Street address and agreed to pay $250 to have sex with both of the young girls. As the group was walking to the designated location, an undercover field team cuffed the defendant, prosecutors said.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said that Bennett’s conviction is consistent with his office’s mission to end sex trafficking and bring predators to justice.
“This defendant, who took advantage of two vulnerable young girls, trafficking them for money in exchange for sex, has now been brought to justice,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “I am committed to rescuing and protecting our at-risk children and teens from predators who are intent on exploiting and abusing them.”
Bennett will have to register as a sex offender after his release.
