Ottawa teen prostitution ring trial delayed by illness

Ayoung womanwho says she was one of nine alleged victims of a teen prostitution ring in Ottawa was expected to testify Thursday, but the trial was delayed after one of the defence lawyers fell ill.

The girl, who was 17 at the time, was supposed to testify that she was taken to a Donald Street apartment building and forced to have sex with a "john." The Crown had relayed that information to the court earlier in the trial.

She is one of nine complainants who are involved in the trial of three girls two 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old who face 74 charges including human trafficking, forcible confinement and procuring for prostitution. They were arrested in June.

A fourth teen girl faces similar charges involving one incident, but her trial will be held at a later date.

Police allege the three girls used social media to befriend and lure nine girls, aged 13 to 17, to a home at a housing complex in southeast Ottawa.

None of the accused or the nine victims can be named due to provisions in the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The trial is expected to pick up where it left off on Friday.

Cover-upon cellphones

On Wednesday, Det. Mike Villeneuve testified about evidence found on social media accounts believed to be operated by the accused.

In his testimony, Villeneuve said it appears the accused made an effort to cover up what they were doing on their cellphones.

Villeneuve said police couldn't recover much from the cellphone of the second 16-year-old charged. The detective said her phone was wiped clean, but acknowledged the phone might never have been used.

Last week, the Crown said it had subpoenaed the girl's mother to testify that her daughter called her from jail and asked her to destroy the SIM card from the phone.

In court, Crown prosecutor Fara Rupert said that deprived the Crown of "a potentially meaningful body of evidence."

Villeneuve also said he had never seen the Instagram account found by CBC News that may be linked to one of the teens.

The Instagram photo-sharing account uses the same pseudonym and similar photos as Facebook and Twitter accounts that the Crown has alleged belonged to one of the accused.