A Gastonia man was just sentenced to 4 life sentences in federal prison for sex trafficking, child pornography, and child prostitution charges.
35-year-old Samuel “Promise” Pratt, and his mother, 53-year-old Daphne Pratt, both of Gastonia, NC, were sentenced this past week on a host of charges related to a sex trafficking operation that stretched from South Carolina to New York.
Samuel Pratt was found guilty on eight counts related to sex trafficking, child pornography, and firearm charges, and Daphne Pratt was found guilty of conspiracy to sex traffic minors after testifying against her son in exchange for a significantly reduced sentence.
Samuel Pratt full sentence includes four life terms for sex trafficking, 30 years for production of child pornography, 10 years for possessing child pornography, 10 years for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and five years for obstruction of justice. He was forced to pay his under-age victims over $40,000 in restitution.
During the trial, Daphne blamed herself for some of her son’s problems, telling the court that she would often leave him without a baby sitter on the Bronx streets while he was growing up.
Samuel Pratt’s attorney asked for a lighter sentence since he said his client grew up in an environment where “he saw hookers and pimps on his street the same way a member of the royal family would see maids and butlers in their home.”
Since this was the first person convicted of sex trafficking in South Carolina during a growing epidemic of sex trafficking in the Carolinas, an example had to be made.
“The first step … addressing the cancer of human trafficking is to hold the traffickers accountable and that is what this case and this sentence does,” the prosecutor said.