Three Toronto men have been charged after allegedly forcing a 15-year-old girl from B.C. into the sex trade, and police fear there may be other potential victims.
Police said the teenager met one of the men while visiting family in Ontario last September, and the two exchanged phone numbers.
Two months later, she received a message asking her out. Police said two men then picked her up, gave her “a large quantity of alcohol and drugs,” and took her to a Toronto hotel, where they forced her into prostitution.
She was allegedly told she owed them transportation costs and hotel costs, and would have to pay them back by having sex for money and giving them the cash.
Police said the men, knowing her age, took photos of her in various degrees of undress, and used them to make an online advertisement for sexual services.
“They told her what to charge her clients for specific sex acts,” the Toronto Police Service said in a release. “She was forced to work, over a period of three weeks, in various hotels in Oshawa, Toronto and Niagara Falls, on a daily basis.”
The girl was allegedly made to have sex with 10 or more clients a day. At one point, police said she was kicked out of a hotel room in Oshawa, and her alleged abusers told her she’d have to work even more to pay for the inconvenience.
A third man was then brought in to help out by booking hotel rooms on the girl’s behalf, according to authorities.
She was able to call police on Dec. 17, and an extensive investigation was launched involving members of the TPS’s Human Trafficking Enforcement Team.
Ahmadu Ahmed, 20, Maher Saleh, 20, and Jerome Laing, 19, have all since been arrested and charged.
Counts of trafficking in persons under 18 years, receiving material benefit from sexual services, and receiving material benefits under 18 years were approved against all three men.
Ahmed and Saleh were charged with another three counts each, of trafficking in persons by exercising control, procuring person under 18 years, and advertising another person’s sexual services.
None of the charges have been proven in court.
Police said they’re concerned there could be other potential victims, and asked anyone with information to come forward.
“We want to make sure that everyone has access to support services and an exit strategy, regardless of their decision to proceed criminally,” the TPS said.
Tipsters can contact police at 416-808-7400, or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477 (TIPS).
