‘Heinous crime’
Windsor man sentenced to federal time for trading drugs for sex with teens
A Windsor man who traded drugs for sex with two girls under the age of 15 has been sentenced to four years in jail for sex assault and drug trafficking.
Myles Walter Card, 25, pleaded guilty earlier this month to four of the 14 charges he had been facing after his arrest last November: two counts of sexual assault, one of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking, and one of breach of probation.
Crown attorney Bill Fergusson said in Windsor provincial court May 29 that Card was supplying drugs, primarily marijuana, to the two victims in return for sexual favours, including sexual intercourse and oral sex with the first girl, who was 14 at the time, and oral sex with the second victim, who was a year younger.
“Sometimes, the three of them were together, and sometimes they weren’t,” Fergusson said, adding that the incidents took place over a period of time.
He said an aggravating factor in the case was that Card was suffering from hepatitis C, “which the victims knew about, not that either of them, being 13 or 14, were concerned about that.”
Fergusson said later that he hadn’t heard anything to indicate the girls had been diagnosed with the disease.
Defence lawyer Tim Peacock and Fergusson made a joint recommendation for the four years in jail: two years for the charge involving the first girl, one for the charge involving the second teen, and one for the drug trafficking charge, all to be served consecutively. Card was given a threemonth sentence on the breach charge, but that will be served concurrently with the others.
He received credit of 300 days for the 200 days he has spent in custody since his arrest.
Peacock said his client acknowledged that there were several occasions of sex with the first girl, but the evidence showed there was only one with the second.
At the time of the offence, he said, Card was dealing with a severe opioid addiction, but has shaken that during his time in custody.
“He can see things with substantially more clarity than he did at the time, and … he is very remorseful,” Peacock said. “He says had he been thinking as he is now, with clarity, there is no chance this would ever have happened.”
Judge Ronda van der Hoek told Card that it was “a heinous crime that you committed with respect to these two girls, and I think you know that.”
She told him that “the problem is that in our community there are a lot of people who take advantage of young girls because they are addicted to various drugs.”
Van der Hoek said she was surprised that marijuana was the drug in question in the case, and that she was expecting hydromorphone or a similar substance.
“Setting all that aside, it doesn’t take anything away from the fact these are young girls and they can’t be expected necessarily to make the right decisions for themselves,” she said.
The sexual assault pleas were a lesser charge than those originally laid, of aggravated sexual assault.
Police said, at the time of Card’s arrest, that they started an investigation after the mother of a girl contacted them. The investigation led to charges being laid involving four girls, all under the age of 16.
Card was initially charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual touching, invitation to sexual touching, administering a stupefying drug to assist him in committing a sexual assault, and luring with telecommunications equipment involving the first girl.
Charges of aggravated sexual assault, sexual touching, invitation to sexual touching, and administering a stupefying drug were laid in relation to the second girl.
Another charge of luring for a sexual purpose involved a third complainant, and a charge of administering a noxious substance with intent to aggrieve was laid in relation to a fourth girl.
The noxious substance was identified in court documents as “laced marijuana,” but court heard that testing showed there was nothing else in the 75 grams of the drug seized.
In October 2015, Card was placed on nine months’ probation after pleading guilty to one charge of keeping a common bawdy house between January and May of that year.
He had originally also been charged with procuring someone to provide sexual services or exercising control over them, and one count of human trafficking.
Another man arrested in that case pleaded guilty to pimping a 15-year-old girl and an 18-yearold woman, and was jailed for five years.
The Crown attorney told the 2015 sentencing hearing that while the other man and Card resided in the same apartment, Card did not have much involvement in the operation because the victims didn’t want anything to do with him.