Trinidadian man pleads guilty to sex trafficking and abducting women in New York

New York: Chad Barclay, a 33-year-old Trinidadian national and legal permanent resident of the United States, accepted responsibility for sex trafficking a woman and also confessed to the abduction of six additional women from 2022 to 2023 under his guilty plea agreement, reported by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The DOJ stated that Barclay confessed, he enticed a woman, named Jane Doe #1, listed in court documents, to his Brooklyn apartment after contacting her through an online escort website. She had travelled from another state with the intention of engaging in commercial sex.

Prosecutors reported that approximately $1500 was initially paid by Barclay to the woman, then ultimately sexually assaulted her against her will, forcibly took the money back and stole about $1200 from her purse. He also seized her cellphone, gaining access to her private information and using it to threaten and harass her.

As part of the plea agreement, Barclay admitted that he abducted six other women between 2022 to 2023. Prosecutors told the court that he used a recurring method of luring women to his Brooklyn apartment for commercial sexual activity before robbing and sexually abusing most of them. The DOJ also informed that Barclay confined some of the victims for hours with the help of private information obtained from women’s cellphones to threaten, intimidate and take control over them.

Barclay was also facing charges contained in a 20-count superseding indictment filed in August 2023. The indictment concerned five female victims and included interstate prostitution, Hobbs Act robbery, abduction, access-device fraud, serious identity theft, witness tampering and obstructing an official proceeding. He was arrested in May, 2024 and ordered to remain in custody pending trial.

The investigation was carried out by the FBI New York Field Office and the NYPD with assistance from the Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. Federal prosecutors stated that Barclay could now face a compulsory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. He will be sentenced by a federal district judge after considering the applicable sentencing guidelines and legal factors.