Teen escort in manslaughter case enters therapy program

Hamilton girl agrees to it after conviction for fatally stabbing Mississauga man

A Hamilton teen escort who killed a man while trying to steal his Jaguar is getting a chance to turn her life around while incarcerated.

The girl pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February but was back in court on Friday, where she agreed to undergo a oneyear “intensive rehabilitation custody and supervision” (IRCS) program while in custody.

In April, Justice Stephen Glithero sentenced her to 27 months, but it formally took effect on Friday after an assessment qualified her for the IRCS.

The program provides therapy to youth with mental health needs who are convicted of serious crimes such as manslaughter and murder.

With credit for time served, she has 21 months of her sentence left, 14 of it in secure custody and seven in a community supervision program.

Court heard in April that the girl has an adjustment disorder, mixed with anxiety and a depressed mood.

It also heard she is at high risk of returning to escorting and the life she led before killing Hayder Qasim-Rushdi, 32, of Mississauga, in Stoney Creek in April 2017.

The hope is this intensive program will change that, court heard on Friday.

Her lawyer, Mitchell Rosenblatt, in April said “She’s prepared to learn and change her ways.”

The girl, now 18, was the ringleader in a scheme she hatched last year with two teenage escorts from Toronto to get an afternoon ride from Mississauga to Hamilton with Qasim-Rushdi and then steal his Jaguar.

The plan went awry when he refused to give up the car, and after a struggle, the ringleader stabbed him.

The girls then called a cab and fled the scene.

“She did not call for assistance for the victim ... or to let anyone know where he was,” noted assistant Crown attorney Cheryl Gzik in April.

The badly injured man managed to get himself to a gas station on Upper Centennial Parkway before coughing up blood and collapsing.

All three girls were 17 at the time and cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

On Friday, the ringleader, in shackles and sporting braided pigtails in the prisoner’s box, was alone in the courtroom except for youth workers and court officials.

Her family attended her April court appearance, where her father and grandmother were ordered to pay the courts $5,000 each because she violated her bail conditions.

The two had acted as sureties so the girl could be granted bail and be released when she was first arrested. But the girl fled to another city and resumed her prostitution.

Court heard earlier that the girl started escorting at 16, living in Toronto for months at a time after withdrawing from parental control and wanting to make money. Her high school years had been fraught with absenteeism and lack of effort.

Attempts to help her fell through when she did not show up for appointments, court heard.

Glithero noted in April that documents prepared for the court detailed her family’s struggles at disciplining her and that “she is a head strong young woman who thought she knew better than anyone.”

Since being rearrested after skipping bail, the girl has applied herself to school work in custody, court heard. Glithero called it “a hopeful sign.” The other two girls pleaded guilty earlier this year to robbery and have been sentenced.

The plan went awry when he refused to give up the car, and after a struggle, the ringleader stabbed him. The girls then called a cab and fled the scene.