Philly men charged with trafficking girl, 15, for sex

Three men from Philadelphia and one from New York have been charged with trafficking a 15-year-old girl for sex, forcing her to have relations with multiple people and trying to use her to blackmail another man.

Prosecutors say Philadelphia residents Karl Venord, 30; Samuel Verrier, 35; Varian Charles, 28; and Haverstraw, N.Y. resident Wilbur Senat, 23, are facing charges in federal court in Newark of conspiracy to engage in the sex trafficking of a minor.

Court documents say the victim, who is from Tennessee, met Senat while she was staying with relatives in Haverstraw in summer 2011, when she was 15 years old.

The girl, who told Senat her age, went with him to a Nyack, N.Y. motel, where Senat forced her to have sex with multiple people who paid Senat in exchange for the sex acts, according to court documents.

The documents say Senat then told the girl her family would be harmed if she didn't travel with him to Philadelphia.

The two went to Philadelphia, where Senat and Charles forced the girl to "engage in commercial sex acts with various individuals" in Charles' "uninhabitable basement," court records say. The two men also allegedly physically abused her.

While at Charles' house, the girl met Verrier, who then brought her to "work" at various clubs. Verrier is accused of forcing her to have sex with club patrons, who then paid Verrier.

In late August 2011, court documents say, the girl met Venord, who told the victim that she could see her family if she traveled with him to Bordentown, N.J.

But during the drive to Bordentown, the documents say, Verrier and Venord told the girl she needed to help them blackmail another man by having sex with him and taking photographs. The two then planned to use the images to blackmail the man and extort money from him.

The trio located the man outside a Bordentown bank, but he resisted the girl's attempts to engage with him.

Venord, Verrier and Senat have been charged by criminal complaint. Senat was ordered detained at an Aug. 6 hearing; Venord and Verrier have initial court appearances this afternoon. Charles was charged by criminal complaint last month and a federal grand jury in New Jersey returned an indictment against him on Tuesday. He remains in custody.