ACCUSED human traffickers Narcott Graham, 54, and Agon Stephens, 52, were offered bail in the sum of $300,000 when they appeared in the Kingston Home Circuit Court last Friday.

Both men will stand trial on March 12.

Stephens, of Deanery Terrace, Kingston 3 and Graham of Love Street, Kingston 12, were arrested in an undercover police operation while allegedly attempting to sell a 14-year-old schoolgirl on May 26, 2006, to a foreigner, who turned out to be an overseas investigator posing as a tourist.

The girl was allegedly being prostituted for US$400, and arrangements were also made to pay her another US$500 for other sexual services, according to court documents. The men, who were arrested in the hotel room the same night they brought the minor to the agent, were later charged with trafficking in persons.

In his bail application, attorney Lloyd McFarlane told Justice Kay Beckford that the minor never said in her statement to the police that the accused men told her that she should have sex with the agent.

McFarlane said the men were not "predisposed" to committing such acts - and that they were led into the situation in which they were by the agent, who approached Stephens for assistance to obtain a young girl.

According to the lawyer, Stephens, who worked as a craft vendor in the New Kingston area and Graham, who operated a food stall, also in New Kingston, never had any discussion with the agent to provide the girl for the use of sex.

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