Trio pleads not guilty in teen prostitution ring
Posted Apr 8, 2013 12:53:34 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA –Three teenage girls, charged with setting up a prostitution ring, have all pleaded not guilty.
The girls were in court for the first day of their trial, Monday morning.
The trio was arrested last spring, after a teenage girl says she managed to escape and call police.
Police say teenage girls were approached through social media and invited to “hang out” at a home in east-end Ottawa.
Once they got there, they were told they had to become prostitutes and were beaten if they didn’t comply with the demands.
The three teens are facing a slew of charges, which took more than 20 minutes to read out in court.
The 74 charges include human trafficking, procuring for prostitution, abduction, publishing child pornography, forcible confinement and uttering threats.
A fourth accused is also facing charges, but will be tried separately.
In her opening statements Monday, crown prosecutor Fara Rupert alleged the girls targeted their victims using Facebook.
After conversing online, Rupert said the girls arrived at the home where they were trapped in the prostitution ring.
Rupert said there were seven victims in total, serving four johns.
She alleged the girls dressed the victims in lingerie, threatened them and in some cases drugged them, before setting them up with a trick.
According to Rupert, one girl was dressed in a pink bikini and picked up in the parking lot of the Giant Tiger on Walkley Road.
Another was shoved into the back of a car outside a gas station on St. Laurent and then delivered to an apartment for sex, according to the crown.
Rupert showed a collection of Tweets, Facebook messages and cellphone photos which she says will be used to build her case.
Both victims and johns are expected to testify. .
