Peterborough pimp guilty in sex trade case

Michael Wallwork to be sentenced on charges in January

“You’re beautiful,” Michael Wallwork told a 21-year-old woman unknown to him on Facebook in the winter of 2017.

What came next was a threeweek period where the woman, who can’t be named under a publication ban, provided sexual services for money, with the help of Wallwork.

Wallwork has been found guilty of publishing an intimate image of the woman without her consent, receiving a financial benefit knowing it was derived from the sexual services of the woman and advertising an offer to provide sexual services for money.

“She turned over all of the money she received from providing sexual services to Mr. Wallwork,” Justice Stuart Konyer said in his judgment Tuesday in Ontario Court of Justice in Peterborough.

Wallwork knew the money was provided to her for sexual services, Konyer said, because he had created the ads for those services, negotiated services and prices with customers who responded to those ads and discussed with the woman how to collect money for those services.

“This arrangement clearly resulted in a financial benefit to Mr. Wallwork, he used a share of the proceeds to pay for his own recreational drugs,” Konyer said.

Wallwork was found not guilty of procuring the woman to offer sexual services for money by exercising control, direction or influence over her. Konyer ruled Wallwork exercised influence over the woman for the purpose of encouraging and aiding her to become a prostitute, but unlike a typical procuring case, he did not persuade or use violence or threats of violence to ensure that she continued to act as a prostitute.

“On the evidence, what he offered was his experience and knowledge of the field, together with an offer of protection, in exchange for a share of the proceeds of the enterprise,” the judge stated, adding that the woman appeared to have entered into the arrangement on her own free will, to earn money for herself and to fund her cocaine habit.

The woman testified she used cocaine occasionally prior to meeting Wallwork, but that she was using it regularly during the short time she was providing sexual services for money.

“She said she used the cocaine to numb herself while working in the sex trade,” Konyer said in his decision.

According to the evidence, which was heard on Aug. 28, the woman had recently lost her job when Wallwork messaged her on Facebook.

She was living with her parents, had run up a lot of debt and was using marijuana and cocaine regularly. She had car payments and insurance, and borrowed or took money from her mother when she could.

“She was in a desperate financial state at the time she met Mr. Wallwork,” Konyer explained.

Through a text message, the woman told Wallwork she was willing to sleep with men for money. Wallwork explained to her that he had worked as a male escort, that he made a lot of money, that he knew how that industry worked, and that he would show her the ropes and keep her safe.

Within days, an online advertisement had been placed on Backpages.com. She started receiving responses to the ads, and sometimes met clients at pre-arranged locations where she would get into their cars and provide sexual services. Other times she would travel to the client’s home.

The woman estimated she provided sexual services to 10 men, and that she walked away with $100. She originally estimated she earned $500 but she later agreed that she told police she earned $1,200, and it was all turned over to Wallwork after each call so he could pay for expenses, and purchase drugs.

The woman told the court she would never have provided sexual services for money during this period of time but for the involvement of Wallwork. However, she did agree that she was desperate for money.

Wallwork is to be sentenced Jan. 10.