A woman who thought she was dating a man who loved her recounts the hell she went through for several months, forced to sell her body in Ontario and Quebec, before escaping thanks to prison.
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“He completely broke me. I had to see lots of specialists and it took me years to get back on my feet,” recounts with emotion the woman from Lévis, who prefers to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
It all started towards the end of 2018, when the young woman, then aged 20, met the man who would become her executioner, in a bar in the Quebec region.
After a few weeks of dating, he allegedly took her to see “friends” who lived in Toronto. It was at this moment that the noose closed around her.
“He isolated me from my family and loved ones, and forced me to prostitute myself, with other women, for months…” she confides.
Panic attack
The man who had full control over his life during this period is known to law enforcement. In May 2022, an Ontario Superior Court judge sentenced him to 22 months in prison for material benefit from the provision of sexual services.
He was also arrested a few weeks ago in connection with armed violence between bikers and street gangs in the greater Quebec region.
“When I found out he was out last December, I had a panic attack. I didn’t know he had been released, I thought I was safe,” she laments.
In this case, the man faces charges of unauthorized possession of weapons in a vehicle, possession of a prohibited firearm, contravention of a prohibition order, dangerous driving and fleeing.
Prison for his freedom
If the young woman was so shaken when she learned that her ex pimp was in the wild, she had to take drastic measures to get rid of its claws, she explains.
“I got caught stealing from several stores on purpose,” she says.
But it was only several months later that she was able to speak face to face with her lawyer, without the presence of her executioner. She then asked him to obtain a detention sentence to “get out of this nightmare”.
In May 2019, she finally received 9 months in prison.
“If I hadn’t done that, I don’t know if I would still be here today to talk about it,” breathes the one who has now managed to rebuild her life and who wanted to tell her story to prevent Other women fall into the same trap as her.