Underaged teen caught pole dancing at Surfers Paradise strip club

THIS strip club is fighting accusations it let a 17-year-old girl pole dance and perform lap dances, allegedly captured on film.

Generic pictures of strippers at the Grosvenor hotel for City News story

A LIQUOR manager has denied letting a 17-year-old girl pole dance and give lap dances at a Gold Coast strip club.

Police allege the teenager was hired to work as a dancer at a Surfers Paradise strip club, which cannot be named for legal reasons, in July last year.

They allegedly obtained CCTV footage of her entering the club and dancing naked.

Club liquor manager Sonya Lee Hackett was charged with providing a false or misleading statement, prohibition on nudity and sexually provocative clothing and liquor-act offences relating to minors.

In the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday, Hackett pleaded not guilty to all four charges.

Police prosecutor Peri Cardiff said Hackett allowed a minor on to the premises and allowed her to participate in adult entertainment.

This had been “by way of pole dancing and performing lap dances”.

“Minors must not be present in an approved area when adult entertainment is provided,” Ms Cardiff said.

“These restrictions ... prevent minors being exposed to or getting involved in adult entertainment activities.

“The defendant failed, neglected or refused to uphold the obligations of her position.”

Ms Cardiff successfully applied for the court to be closed while the footage of the teenager “dancing topless and dancing naked” was played.

Solicitor Dan Sushames, from Harris Sushames Lawyers, said his client accepted that on the relevant dates the child was on the premises, entered through the front door and danced naked.

“My client’s defence is that she wasn’t the one who allowed it, and that will come out in evidence in due course,” he said.

“We say that we were not the one who made the decision that she could do it.”

Plainclothes Constable Nicholas Metcalfe told the court he was notified that a minor was working on the premises and went there to ask for their dancer records.

Constable Metcalfe said he spoke to Hackett, who said she didn’t know the teenager.

The police officer said the strip-club owner contacted him the next day, told him Hackett had lied and gave him the records requested.

The trial will continue in the Southport Magistrates Court today.

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Originally published as Underaged teen caught pole dancing at Surfers Paradise strip club