Ex-Palatine Resident Gets 45 Years For Pimping Teens

CHICAGO, IL — A former Palatine resident accused of using violence and drugs to force girls into prostitution was sentenced to 45 years in prison Thursday, according to federal authorities. A jury had convicted Fabrieal Delaney, 32, on eight counts of sex trafficking, the U.S. attorney's office said in a release.

According to federal prosecutors, Delaney, who was living in Battle Creek, Michigan, at the time, befriended girls 16 years old and younger in order to groom them for prostitution. He would then post photos of the girls online to advertise their services.

Once he recruited the girls, Delaney would verbally and physically abuse the victims, as well as get them addicted to drugs, in order to keep them under his control, authorities said. In one case, an adult victim testified that Delaney threatened her by holding a hot iron up to her face.

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“The defendant preyed upon young and vulnerable girls for his own profit,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Rajnath Laud wrote in his federal sentencing memo. "Defendant’s crime is incredibly serious, and warrants a sentence of several decades in prison."

Delaney eventually was arrested in July 2011 as part of a 10-month investigation by federal law enforcement agents, prosecutors said. In that incident, Delaney brought two girls — 17 and 16 — and a 20-year-old woman from Michigan to a Tinley Park hotel to work as prostitutes at an apparent bachelor party that was actually a sting operation. He had set up an arrangement with undercover agents to have the victims peform sex acts with as many as 12 men for $150 to $300 per customer, according to federal authorities.

RELATED: Pimp Stung at Tinley Hotel in 2011 Convicted on Sex Trafficking Charges

Illinois State Police pulled over Delaney and the victims in Will County, and he was arrested. He has been in custody since then.

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