SENTENCE STRUCK FOR ‘NICE’ PIMP

Mandatory minimum ‘grossly disproportionate’

OTTAWA • An Ottawa judge has ruled that mandatory minimum sentences for two sex offences should not apply in the case of a naïve and unsophisticated pimp who unwittingly recruited and photographed two underage prostitutes.

Justice Colin McKinnon said the minimum penalty demanded by law — a combined three-year prison term — would amount to cruel and unusual punishment for Steevenson Joseph, a 24-year-old first-time offender.

Since Joseph does not deserve any jail time, the judge said, “it follows that the mandatory minimum sentences for his offences are grossly disproportionate.”

As a result, McKinnon struck down as unconstitutional the mandatory minimums for two offences: receiving a benefit from the prostitution of someone under 18, and making and possessing child porn.

He imposed a suspended sentence in the case along with one of year of probation.

McKinnon’s decision represents the latest in a series of similar rulings during the past three years in which judges have balked at applying obligatory penalties established by the federal government in the Criminal Code.

The use of mandatory minimums was greatly expanded by the former Conservative government as part of its tough-on-crime agenda.

In an interview Wednesday, Joseph’s defence lawyer, Ewan Lyttle, called McKinnon’s decision “yet another example of the former Conservative government’s failed criminal justice policy.”

“These policies, designed only to appeal to voters — and not to make the system better — prevent judges from doing their jobs properly,” he said.

“In this case, the trial judge, who was most familiar with the facts of the case and circumstances of the offender, was forced by the former government to impose a cruel and unusual sentence. Instead of submitting to that unconstitutional direction, he opted to strike those laws down.”

In February, at the conclusion of a three-week trial, Joseph was convicted of three prostitution-related offences, along with making and possessing child pornography.

A jury acquitted him of more serious charges, including sexual assault and two charges related to underage prostitution.

The Crown asked for a three-and-a-half year penitentiary term for Joseph, while the defence sought a suspended sentence.

In his sentencing decision delivered Tuesday, McKinnon said he has dealt with many pimps and pornographers — none of them like Joseph.

“I have sent a number of them to penitentiary, including two child pornographers,” he said. “In stark contrast to those cases, the facts of this case constitute the least serious conduct witnessed by me in the context of prostitution and child pornography cases.”

A graduate of La Cité Collégiale, Joseph, 21 at the time, was depressed, lonely and living on his own in 2015 when a female friend involved in the sex trade told him about the lucrative business.

Joseph later met a girl who told him that she was 18 and a college student. He asked her if she was interested in making money in the sex trade.

The woman, identified as C.A., told court that Joseph did not pressure her to engage in prostitution. She decided on her own to get involved, she testified, and brought her best friend, R.D., to meet Joseph since she was also interested in the sex trade.

Joseph took photos of the two girls — posed provocatively in bras and panties — and posted them on backpage.com, a website that carries escort service ads. (These pictures were later deemed child pornography.)

Both girls then used Joseph’s apartment to service clients.

Unbeknownst to Joseph, however, the girls were still in high school and under 18.

Another girl from their high school, M.M., later contacted Joseph and arranged to meet him and have sex. She was keen to get into the escort business, too, court heard, but her first job turned out to be part of an Ottawa police sting operation.

Joseph was arrested on June 17, 2015 and M.M. was taken to the police station to make a statement. She was just 15 years old.

During the trial, all three girls testified, insisting they were never pressured and decided to join the sex trade of their own free will, having lied about their ages.

“They all claimed that he (Joseph) was a very nice person, and that they were free to come and go to his apartment as they wished,” the judge said.