Man charged with human trafficking in London
On the same day the OPP were training hospitality workers in London to spot the signs of human trafficking, city police announced a raft of trafficking charges against a man after rescuing an underage girl from a southend hotel.
Around 130 people — more than one-quarter of them hotel employees — packed a conference room at the Four Points by Sheraton on Wellington Road Tuesday for a human trafficking awareness session designed for hotel, education and public-health professionals. Experts have identified London as a hub for human trafficking, citing its location on Highway 401 between Toronto and Windsor. Sex-trafficking victims often are forced to work out of hotels and motels, where staff and visitors aren’t aware of the warning signs. “We need to recognize that police can’t be everywhere all the time,” OPP Supt. Greg Skinner told the gathering. Concierge and front-desk staff should be wary of guests with no baggage, customers paying with cash or prepaid credit cards, frequent visitors and young women accompanied by older men. Housekeepers should be aware of not being allowed into rooms for multiple days, the presence of sex paraphernalia, large groups staying in a single room and signs of excessive drug or alcohol use. “Human trafficking is a ghost crime; it’s designed for you not to see it,” said survivor and advocate Timea Nagy, the training session’s keynote speaker.
After immigrating to Canada from Hungary in 1998, Nagy was held against her will at a Torontoarea motel, where she was forced to work as a prostitute. Nagy, who also worked at a massage parlour and strip club, described how she was sexually assaulted by the club owner on the first day of arriving in Canada. “That was the moment I said goodbye to my personality as Timea,” Nagy said, revealing how her traffickers threatened to kill her family if she tried to escape. While Nagy was leading the training session Tuesday, London police announced an Ajax man, 22, was charged with nine offences, including trafficking a minor, sexual assault, financially benefiting from trafficking a minor, procuring a minor to provide sexual services and advertising another person’s sexual services. Investigators from the human trafficking unit also charged a London man, 22, with obtaining sexual services of a minor and rescued an underage girl from a south-end hotel room. “One individual was arrested at the scene and one was arrested nearby,” Const. Sandasha Bough said.
The names of both charged men aren’t being released because it could identify the girl, whose name is the subject of a publication ban, Bough said.
The head of the London Abused Women’s Centre applauded police for charging the alleged john, saying it’s a great step to combat human trafficking.
“It’s basic economics,” Walker said. “It’s about supply and demand, and if the demand is reduced … then supply will follow.” But Walker questioned why the alleged john’s name wasn’t released. “It’s not about shame, it’s about public safety,” she said of publishing johns’ names. Human trafficking — an industry estimated at a $1-trillion worldwide — involves the exploitation for profit of a person through force, fraud or coercion. There are two categories: labour trafficking and sex trafficking.
In London, human-trafficking officers work with other police services and community partners to assist trafficking victims and investigate traffickers. The unit laid more than 200 charges last year. Fifteen females were rescued and 30 johns charged.