A 15-year-old teenager fell pregnant after being repeatedly raped to be “desensitized”. A 21 year old woman “literally in a state of slavery”. Cleephord Linecker Losse, an extremely violent pimp who had “absolute control” over his victims, was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday.
When the 31-year-old finally got handcuffed, the two victims were crying hot tears in the courtroom of the Montreal courthouse. The two women experienced an unnamed ordeal between 2015 and 2017 at the hands of Cleephord Linecker Losse, alias “Ghost”.
“This type of individuals vampirizes their victims to abandon them completely destroyed.” […]. This is what almost happened to [Martine*], which was to be shipped to Halifax. The treatment that the accused has subjected him to is most degrading and constitutes neither more nor less than a form of “modern slavery”, ”concluded Judge Érick Vanchestein.
Cleephord Linecker Losse, 31, was convicted this spring of around 15 counts, including human trafficking, procuring a minor and sexual interference with a teenage girl. He was even found guilty of helping Martine attempt to kill herself by forcibly inserting twenty methamphetamine pills down her throat.
Martine was downright the “prisoner” of Cleephord Linecker Losse. Sequestered in an insanitary motel in Montreal, the 21-year-old woman had to submit to a frantic pace: up to 10 customers per day on “good days”. She was forced to use methamphetamine (speed) to stay awake.
Cleephord Linecker Losse had “constant” control over Martine’s life. He was in charge of travel, sexual services, food, hours of sleep, etc. He also kept his victim’s identity documents. In one year, she estimates having given $ 40,000 to her executioner by prostituting herself in Toronto, Montreal and Bas-Saint-Laurent.
Cleephord Linecker Losse’s violence was limitless. The pimp subjected Martine to anal intercourse in order to “punish her and [la] dominate ”. In addition to the routine slaps and punches, the predator hit the victim in the face with a hanger and beat her “like a man” by hurling her against the walls.
In an episode of extreme violence, Cleephord Linecker Losse took Martine by the hair and brought a knife blade in front of her eye. “Can you feel her there?” Are you near death? », Spat his torturer. Martine thought her last moments were approaching. When she learned that the pimp wanted her “to go to Halifax”, a euphemism for making her “disappear” in the community, she turned to the police.
A few months earlier, Martine had never been a prostitute. But Cleephord Linecker Losse took advantage of the significant vulnerability and the “extremely precarious” financial situation of the young woman to submit her to his wishes. His stratagem is similar to that of “the boyfriend using seduction,” said the judge.
This type of pimps like the accused is a fraudster. He attracts his young prey by charming them and giving them the prospect of a good life, while exploiting and abusing them for his personal gain.
Judge Érick Vanchestein
It was by taking advantage of the financial problems of his 15-year-old victim that he encouraged the teenager to become a prostitute in the summer of 2015. For a month, the young girl thus submitted to the wishes of many. customers at Motel Bourassa. Cleephord Linecker Losse also had extensive full sex with the teenager to “desensitize” her, until she became pregnant. She finally had an abortion.
Cleephord Linecker Losse’s crimes left “deep and indelible” wounds in both of his victims. Depression, anger, shame: the teenager was marked for life by this month of hell. Since then, she seems “to be able to relieve her anger only by hurting others”, underlines the judge.
Suffering from post-traumatic stress, Martine experiences “intense and prolonged” psychological distress and maintains self-destructive behavior. His life is a “minefield,” said the judge. She further fears that the accused will find her one day in order to “make her disappear”.
Crown Attorney Me Amélie Rivard claimed 10 years in penitentiary, while Me Gabriel Bérubé-Bouchard of the defense requested 3 years of detention by contesting the constitutionality of certain minimum sentences. By raising a plethora of aggravating factors and the virtual absence of mitigating factors, Judge Érick Vanchestein ruled for a consequent sentence of 9 years of detention.
* Fictitious name to protect the identity of the victim