On June 6, 2022, Bucks County President Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. sentenced Andrew Hall, 29, to seventeen to forty years in prison for sex trafficking a fifteen-year-old victim, and ordered that Hall register as a sex offender. In September of 2020, we reported that Hall, 29, was charged with the felonies of promoting prostitution, criminal use of a communications facility, unlawful contract with a minor, sexual exploitation of children, statutory sexual assault, photographing child sex acts, and trafficking in individuals. In February of 2022, Hall pled guilty to these offenses.
Hall met the fifteen-year-old victim when she ran away from home and travelled to the Motel 6 in Philadelphia. Hall then publicly advertised sex with the victim, photographed her, and used his own phone number for the advertisements. Hall also raped the underage victim and would record and post the videos of their sexual encounters online. Furthermore, Hall admitted to investigators that he knew the victim was fifteen. Hall used the money earned from the victim’s exploitation to pay for the room at the hotel, as well as to buy food and drugs.
Hall has remained in the Bucks County Correctional Facility since his arrest in August 2020. While in the facility, Hall violated orders by contacting his victim, and continued to make phone calls, even after his phone privileges were suspended.
The CSE Institute applauds the efforts of the Bensalem police department for their effective response in investigating and charging Hall with sex trafficking and related offenses. The CSE Institute also congratulates the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office for effectively pursuing sex traffickers and providing justice for survivors.
It is unknown whether hotel employees knew this criminal activity occurred in the hotel and still continue to rent rooms to the trafficker and sex buyers. As we noted in September of 2020, almost half of all traffickers of minors use the internet to advertise their victims and communicate with sex buyers. According to the FBI, there are currently an estimated 293,000 American children at risk of being exploited and trafficked for sex, the majority being between the ages of 12 and 14. It is also important to note that those who traffic minors often use hotel rooms to sexually exploit victims. Hotels can and should be held criminally and civilly liable for their involvement in sex trafficking. Therefore, in the interest of justice for the victim, the CSE Institute encourages a thorough investigation into all possible actors in addition to Hall who profited or benefitted from the sexual exploitation of this child victim.
All views expressed herein are personal to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law or of Villanova University.