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Hollis man pleads guilty to forcing a teenage girl into prostitution for two months

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A Hollis man admitted to forcing a 15-year-old girl into prostitution over a two-month period in 2016, prosecutors announced.

Corey Hannah, 34, pleaded guilty on July 24 to sex trafficking. He is due to return to court on Aug. 15, where a judge indicated that Hannah would be sentenced to four and a half to nine years in prison.

In December 2018, Hannah was convicted of third-degree promoting prostitution and was sentenced to three and a half to seven years in prison. Both of Hannah’s sentences will be run concurrently.

“Prostitution is not a victimless crime. This defendant not once – but twice – forced two individuals to trade sex for cash in order to enrich himself,” said acting District Attorney John M. Ryan. “The victims – a teenager and a young woman – were physically and mentally intimidated and abused. The defendant is now going to prison for his criminal conduct.”

According to court documents, Hannah admitted to forcing a 15-year-old girl — who was 14 at the time that they met — to engage in prostitution acts in Queens and elsewhere between May and June of 2016. Hannah posted prostitution ads of the young victim on Backpage.com and would bring her to various hotels and other locations to engage in prostitution dates for money, which she was forced to turn over to him.

During this time, Hannah raped the victim and would become angry and violent when she refused to work as a prostitute for him. In one instance, he burned her on the leg with a lit cigar, which caused scarring.

In the earlier trial against him —where Hannah was convicted in 2018 — Hannah met the 21-year-old victim on a phone dating service in March 2015 and took her to dinner. The victim later discovered that her purse was gone, and Hannah told her that she had to engage in prostitution acts for him if she wanted her purse and its contents returned.

Hannah posted prostitution advertisements online for sex encounters with the victim and, after having instilled in her a fear that he would hurt her if she did not comply, took her to various Queens hotels to have sex with men for money. During this time, Hannah was physically violent with her — in one instance, he choked her and in another, he scratched her above the eye.