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Victor Clayton, 47, was sentenced to 15 years behind bars and 10 years supervised release for running an underage prostitution scheme that crossed state lines, US Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said in a statement dated Thursday, Sept. 29.
On March 15, 2018, Clayton was arrested at a Dunn, North Carolina motel where police found him with two girls aged 16 and 15.
The 47-year-old had solicited the victims as sex workers at the motel, and had done the same with the older victim in at least four hotels in Philadelphia earlier that year, according to the US Attorney's Office.
Authorities also accused Clayton of sexually assaulting the younger victim while in North Carolina, and he was discovered in a motel bed with the victim when officers arrived at the room, court papers show.
He was charged with two counts of sex trafficking of a minor and one count of attempting to commit the same, prosecutors noted.
Clayton pleaded guilty in November 2021, following years of appeals by his defense team, which argued that Dunn police improperly searched the motel room in violation of his fourth amendment rights.
“The crime that this defendant committed is one of the most devastating to victims that our Office prosecutes,” Romero said.
“Clayton forced a young person, a minor child, to sell her body for his own greed and financial gain, attempted to do the same to her friend, and did, in fact, assault that girl himself. We will continue to work collectively to investigate these destructive crimes against some of the most vulnerable victims in our community.”
He is presently held at FDC Philadelphia according to the Bureau of Prisons.
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