NORFOLK — A Portsmouth man admitted Thursday to his role in the prostitution of a child at hotels across Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
Timothy Gary Williams pleaded guilty in federal court to multiple counts of using facilities in interstate commerce to promote and manage the sex trafficking of a child.
According to court documents, Williams, 29, met a 17-year-old girl in October 2018 and the two began dating.
Shortly thereafter, Williams and the girl discussed her “engaging in commercial sex to earn money for the couple.”
Prosecutors said the girl then began having sex with customers at hotels in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. Williams rented hotel rooms for her to use with clients, provided her with condoms, acted as security “during her commercial sex appointments,”
The pair shared the “earnings.”
Williams and the girl also frequently used drugs, including marijuana and cocaine, prosecutors said.
On Feb. 6, the National Human Trafficking Hotline received information indicating that the girl was being forced to engage in prostitution by Williams, and that Williams had physically abused her, including assaulting her with a metal rod, prosecutors said.
When she was recovered by law enforcement at a hotel in Virginia Beach on Feb. 7, she told authorities Williams had been violent with her and he had assaulted her with objects, choked her, bitten her, and threatened her with violence.
Williams faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
He will be sentenced Nov. 4.
