Man coerced mistress to work as escort

A married father of two who convinced his mistress to work as an escort at Niagara Falls hotels says he cared deeply for the woman.

A local crown, however, argued their long-term relationship was based on exploitation and nothing more.

“There is a total lack of remorse,” assistant Crown attorney Mark Dean said Wednesday at the sentencing hearing of Joshua Thomas.

“There is a total lack of acceptance of responsibility. A total lack of appreciation of the harm he caused on her.”

Thomas, a resident of Brampton, was sentenced to two years behind bars after pleading guilty to several charges including receiving a financial benefit obtained by the commission of an offence.

Based on the amount of time he had spent in pre-trial custody, the 26-year-old must serve a balance of six-and-a-half months behind bars.

“She was used in ways that were not helpful to her,” Judge Tory Colvin said of the woman, who died in December 2016 at the age of 26, leaving behind a young son.

“I know nothing I can say can help the family,” the judge said. “Nothing I can say can bring her back. Nothing I can say can lessen the pain they feel over their loss. I can only hope with the passage of time the pain will lessen, but it will never go away.”

Dean told the judge the Crown would have faced “significant hurdles” if the case had gone to trial since the victim is deceased.

“There is no suggestion the cause of her death had anything to do with Mr. Thomas,” he added.

The complainant, a Toronto-area resident, had known Thomas since they were in high school.

She reconnected with Thomas in 2015 when he began calling her from prison where he was serving a sentence on an unrelated conviction.

The woman was working at a restaurant at the time but Thomas suggested she return to the sex trade to earn more money.

The woman complied and worked as an escort from a Toronto-area hotel. She would wire Thomas the money she earned. He used the cash to purchase items at the prison canteen.

Thomas then suggested the woman move to Niagara Falls, telling her it was “lucrative for prostitution.”

Over a six-month period in late 2015 and early 2016, the woman worked as an escort in Niagara Falls. Thomas, who by then had been released from prison, joined the woman in Niagara.

“She turned over all of her earnings to the accused,” Dean said.

Thomas would monitor the “frequency, duration and fee of each (escort) call.”

He also edited her online ad, removing certain restrictions from her menu of sexual services.

Defence lawyer Talman Rodocker said his client and the victim were high school sweethearts who remained “significant parts of each others’ lives,” even after Thomas married.

He said the victim was involved in prostitution before Thomas became involved.

He said his wife, who was present in court, continues to be supportive of her husband.

“His wife was not oblivious to the love triangle,” Rodocker said.

Before he was sentenced, Thomas told the judge “As one man, I wasn’t able to keep both of them happy.”

In addition to the jail sentence, Thomas was placed on probation for three years and also ordered to stay away from the victim’s family.