Court case details Stratford teen's harrowing tale of being sold for sex

She was a 15-year-old Stratford girl struggling with an addiction to meth.

She got into a fight with her mom and ran away from home.

She made her way to Seaforth, north of London, where a 16-year-old guy she knew lived.

She didn't know that the guy had been texting with a 22-year-old from Toronto who was looking to set up a "Cash Gang" that would pimp out girls for large sums of money. He urged the Seaforthteen to hook him up with young women, emphasizing the money that could be made, according to court documents.

That Toronto man, Jaiden Alexis-McLymont, was eventually found guilty of several sex trafficking offences in Dec. 2017, with a judge only recently releasing his sentencing decision.

Alexis-McLymont and two other men, Anthony Elgin and Dylan Hird, both in their early 20s, were convicted in a case that offers a glimpse into how easy it can be for some to get caught up in sex trafficking in southern Ontario.

5 days in captivity

Court documents detailingthe 2015 ordealshow the menheld the girl captive in aKitchener hotel room for five days, withholding food and plying her with drugs while forcing her to have sex with paying customers they set up online.

The girl in the case can't be named because she was a minorwhen the crime took place, and because she is a victim of sexual assault.

After her friend puther in touch with Alexis McLymont, he met her at the Kitchener bus terminal, a city she didn't know. She thought she'd be dealing drugs with him. Instead, he took her to a hotel she described as "gross" where three other people were waiting.

She was given crystal meth and asked to perform a sex act on a waiting customer, in exchange for the promise of being given more crystal meth at the end.

When the promised drugs were not given to her, she said she wanted to leave the hotel, but wasn't allowed. The room was blocked, and she was threatened with violence.

Drugs to keep her 'unthinking'

For the week that followed, she was held in the hotel against her will by Elgin, 23, and Hird, 23. Alexis-McLymonthad left, coming back later to retrieve some money.

The girlwas forced to pose alone and with another sex worker in provocative photographs that were posted online, advertising sexual services. She was forced to have sex with the two men as well as paying customers.

The girl was repeatedly threatened with violence. She was only allowedin two hotel rooms, unable to leave except todeliverdrugs to people just outside the hotel, "a deliberate effort by her captors to distance themselves from such activity," said Justice Ian Leach in his sentencing summary.

She was given almost no food and no toiletries. She was allowed a few pizza slices and part of a discarded muffin.

Her phone was taken away and she was given crystal meth every once in a while "to keep her dependent, unthinking and compliant," the judge wrote.

After a week, the girl was told to meet a customer in a shopping mall parking lot. She used a sweater to hide her cell phone, ran to a store and called 911.

When police arrived, she insisted on being taken to a remote location before giving police details about her captivity.

'Worthlessness and sadness'

The three men were sentenced at different times.

The girl was overcome with emotion during Alexis-McLymont and Hird'ssentencing, and had the Crown read her statement at Elgin's sentencing.

She said she felt constant feelings of worthlessness and sadness, physical and emotional exhaustion and anxiety and depression.

Although she tried to go back to school after her escape, the stress on her mental health was too much.

Her mother said the family's life has been transformed into "a living nightmare."

The judge said the girl had been terrorized by the three men.

"Over the course of many days, she was held captive in a strange city, and deprived of food, basic hygiene and even a shred of dignity. She was drugged, and threatened with physical harm and death," Leach wrote in his judgment.

Hird was the ring-leader of the operation, the judge said, but the other two men contributed to recruiting the girl and holding her captive.

Sentencing

Hird and Alexis-McLymont were sentenced in December2017. The judge's decision was published in January 2018.

Hirdwas found guilty of trafficking a person under 18, procuring a person under 18 to provide sexual services, receiving material benefit from the trafficking of a person under 18, as well as sexual interference, sexual assault and unlawful confinement.

Elgin was found guilty of the same six charges asHirdand wassentenced inFebruary2018 to seven years but will serve around six and a half.The judge's decision has not been publicly posted yet.

Alexis-McLymont was found guilty of trafficking a person under 18, procuring a person under 18 to provide sexual services and receiving material benefit from trafficking a person under 18. He was sentenced to six years in prison. With time served, he was to serve five and a half years.

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