A Montgomery County man forced a woman into sex work at a hotel near the Pennsylvania Turnpike, DA says

A Montgomery County man has been charged with human trafficking, prosecutors said Monday, after he forced a women into sex work at a hotel in Plymouth Meeting.

Cornell Scott-Milbourne, 25, of Crum Lynne, has also been charged with aggravated indecent assault and sexual assault for allegedly forcing himself on the victim, court records show. He remained in custody Monday in lieu of $1 million bail.

His attorney, Stephen Dean Stewart Jr., said it was too early in the criminal proceedings for him to comment. Scott-Milbourne is scheduled to appear before a magisterial district judge for his preliminary hearing Tuesday afternoon.

Investigators said they were led to Scott-Milbourne by an employee at the Hampton Inn on Chemical Road, who suspected that a guest at the hotel was promoting sex work in two rooms there, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

Hotel records showed that Scott-Milbourne had rented two rooms there using the same phone number he posted in advertisements on a website used for soliciting sex workers, the affidavit said. When a detective used that phone number and posed as a customer, the affidavit said, Scott-Milbourne offered various prices for sex acts, and scheduled a time for him to arrive at the hotel.

When investigators executed a search warrant at the rooms on May 12, they found three women, one of whom agreed to be interviewed, according to the affidavit. That woman — whom police did not identify — said she met Scott-Milbourne at a different hotel months earlier, and that he had pressured her into taking provocative pictures to post online.

Later, Scott-Milbourne arranged a meeting with her and another man, and demanded she have sex with him, the affidavit said. When she balked, the affidavit said, Scott-Milbourneforcibly had sex with the woman.

The victim continued to work for Scott-Milbourne under threats of violence, authorities said. He gave her drugs to “help her relax” while she had sex with clients, and kept all of the money she made, the affidavit said. When detectives interviewed her at the hotel, they said she told them she had been paid $3,000 to have sex with five men that day.

Not long after, when Scott-Milbourne was arrested near the hotel, the affidavit said, he was holding $3,000.