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NEWMARKET — An East Coast “pimp” dropped his head between his legs Friday as a judge announced she wanted his sentence to send a clear message to others.
The charges 24-year-old Marlo Williams pleaded guilty to weren’t the ones that landed him a three-year sentence: Assault, forcible confinement, resisting arrest, possession of ammunition contrary to a prohibition order, breach of probation, breach of recognizance — that much, he admitted to.
But it was the aggravating factors — the way he exploited a 19-year-old woman, coerced her into stripping, then took her earnings — that affected Justice Anne-Marie Hourigan’s decision.
“A message needs to be sent that persons in the position of the defendant cannot take advantage of persons ... in the position of the complainant,” Hourigan said.
Williams was the first person to be charged with human trafficking by York Regional Police.
“I have concluded that this relationship was indeed exploitive and oppressive in nature,” Hourigan said Friday.
Lisa (not her real name) arrived in Toronto from Edmonton last August to visit a man whom she had met on the Internet. Her plan was to stay a week, she testified during a pretrial hearing.
Through that man, she was introduced to a young woman who took her to a Mississauga strip club where she met Williams.
Against her wishes, he coaxed her into becoming a stripper and forced her to hand over all her earnings to him — about $1,500 over the span of a week.
Lisa testified that Williams told her he was a “pimp,” and when she tried to escape his Mississauga condominium Aug. 18, he attacked her.
“He chased after me. Grabbed me by the hair and dragged me back into the condo. Started hitting me and telling me to shut up, and then I screamed and he started choking me,” Lisa testified. “He told me to shut up. He called me a bitch. He called me stupid.”
Lisa was choked until she lost consciousness, Hourigan said. When she came to, she tried to kill herself.
The attack “graphically highlights the nature of their relationship,” Hourigan said. “It was not an amicable or equitable relationship but rather an oppressive one.
“(Lisa) felt compelled to stay with him and keep stripping because she had no money or contacts in Ontario. "The defendant was predatory toward the complainant and took advantage of her vulnerabilities.”
Although only ammunition was found in the apartment, Lisa testified that she was shown a gun.
Quoting from Lisa’s victim impact statement, Hourigan noted that the young woman has trouble sleeping, suffers from nightmares and self-medicates through binge drinking.
“She has less faith in herself, is confused about who she is and finds it hard to be happy without taking medication,” Hourigan said.
Defence lawyer Peter Thorning had asked for a sentence of time already served in pretrial custody. Crown attorney Michael Demczur wanted four years.
Hourigan gave Williams one-year credit for pre-trial custody, plus two years, pointing to his breaches of probation, recognizance and a weapons prohibition order as further aggravating factors.
He is believed to be an associate of North Preston’s Finest, a Nova Scotia-based gang notorious for its ruthless pimping culture.
The Nova Scotia native was convicted in 2005 of assault causing bodily harm, at which time he was fined $100 and given 12 months probation and a weapons prohibition order. Two years later, he was convicted of refusing to provide a breath sample and failing to stop at the scene of an accident. He was given a $600 fine for each conviction and a one-year license suspension.
Last year, he was convicted of uttering threats to his landlord.
When he was arrested by York Regional Police, he was wanted on a Nova Scotia warrant for charges of driving while disqualified, breaching probation and failing to appear in court.
Thorning said he was “a little bit disappointed” by the sentence, adding he thought it was “too long” for such a young man.
Demczur said the public denunciation Hourigan handed down is needed in such cases of exploitation by “individuals who prey on the vulnerable.”
The law is not only for punishing the criminals, he added, but also for protecting those “in desperate need of that protection.”
tamara.cherry@sunmedia.ca
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