United Group Insurance

Iowa man sentenced to life for child sex trafficking

News

November 17th, 2017 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a central Iowa man to life in prison for hooking girls aged 12 and 15 on crack cocaine, having sex with them and later providing them to his drug dealer for sex acts in exchange for drugs.

Federal prosecutors in Des Moines described Clark Wesley Betts Jr. as a dangerous predator who should spend the rest of his life in prison. The 41-year-old Betts, from Urbandale, was sentenced Friday. He was convicted by a jury in June on two counts of child sex trafficking.

He was ordered to pay nearly $350,000 in restitution to one girl and nearly $375,000 to the other, amounts calculated to provide them counseling and appropriate medication for the rest of their lives.