Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday signed legislation that eliminates a mind-boggling loophole in state law that required prosecutors to prove victims of child sex trafficking weren’t willing participants.
The loophole, which was highlighted by The Post in a multi-part series in April on sex trafficking in New York City, made it essential for child victims to testify against their assailants in court in order to get justice.
Now, under the Child Sex Trafficking Act, prosecutors will no longer have to prove force, fraud or coercion was used to prostitute out a child in order to secure more hefty convictions against traffickers.
“For the women who run our trafficking unit, I know that they think this is a game-changer,” Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, who attended the bill-signing in Chinatown, told The Post.
“It’s been a huge gap in our New York law,” he added. “It’s bad enough as a trafficking survivor to testify against your pimp or your trafficker — to do that as a child takes unbelievable courage. This will help us protect those kids.”
The legislation, which was sponsored by Assembly Member Amy Paulin (D-Westchester) and state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), has been blocked for years in Albany by Assembly Democrats — who were concerned about unintended consequences.
The final bill ensures that victims who help recruit other victims into sex trafficking won’t be wrongly prosecuted.
Advocates said it will finally make violent felony convictions against sex traffickers the norm in New York.
“I know for a fact that what we’re going to see is more of these pimps and buyers of sex locked up,” said Rev. Que English, of the advocacy group Not On My Watch. “We are now going to see more prosecutions and less revictimizations [in court] and more freedom for these children to come forward with their parents because they know they don’t have to [be revictimized].”