Vice News is reporting that video exists showing Paul Hutchinson, an executive producer from the anti-sex trafficking film "The Sound of Freedom," apparently feeling the naked breasts of a teenage sex trafficking victim.
Footage of the incident was taken when Hutchinson was running a sting operation against sex traffickers in Mexico run by Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), a private anti-trafficking organization whose founder, Tim Ballard, resigned earlier this year amid sexual misconduct allegations leveled by seven different women.
Vice notes that there is no suggestion in any of the video that Hutchinson is actually taking part in sex trafficking and that he appears to be gathering incriminating footage of sex traffickers.
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Nonetheless, the publication notes that his methods have come under criticism from other groups that are combatting sex trafficking.
"A detailed description of another video shows Hutchinson potentially creating demand for trafficking while posing as a wealthy sex tourist," writes Vice News. "According to an investigator’s description, he asked a trafficker, who was showing him pictures of sex workers, for a younger girl."
This is controversial, the publication writes, because it could lead to cartels going out of their way to kidnap underaged girls that they otherwise would not have targeted.
When contacted by Vice News, Hutchinson did not deny the description of the video written by investigators, but he did insist that the girl whose breasts he felt swore in an affidavit to police that she was over 18 years old and he said that his actions were necessary to maintain cover because the trafficker was "testing our legitimacy."
