The victim in an alleged sex-trafficking scheme tested Wednesday in Cayuga court that she was referred to as “the dog” by those accused of profiting from her work.
The woman, now 20, was on the stand for a third day in the trial of four Caledonia residents on charges of human trafficking: Daniel Campbell, 36, Joshua Hillock, 32 Dragisa Lucic, 30, and Crystal-Anne Marier, 36, have all pleaded not guilty. A fifth person, Carly Creor, 27, is also charged in the case but will face a separate trial.
“Josh told me that everyone called me that,” said the woman, who was born in Brantford. “Like, ‘Did you see the dog today? Did you feed the dog today, stuff like that.”
The woman, who can’t be identified, said in the fall of 2019 one or more of the five drove her to various motels, took photos of her, posted ads for sexual services and supplied her drugs. They also arranged “out-calls” where they delivered her to clients for sexual serious.
She described one such “out-call” in November 2019.
“As soon as I seen the person, I had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen,” she said.
She said she was delivered to a coffee shop in Cambridge. She got into the car of a man, who drove her “into the middle of a forest.”
The man then tried to get his money back, she said.
“The guy chased me and ripped the money out of my boot. After he left, I walked to the street,” she said, adding that it took almost 30 minutes for her to be picked up.
A series of text messages was presented to the court by Crown lawyer Susan Orlando, from Ontario’s human trafficking prosecution team, showing the communication among the group, which ranged from alerts about the arrival of clients to instructing the victim to be more “bubbly and happy ” with clients so she got good reviews.
The woman was instructed to keep in touch at all times and had to ask permission to go out for a smoke or to get food.
“I told Dan I didn’t want to go back to work,” the woman told court. “I didn’t want anything to happen to me but he kind of shrugged it off. He said we needed the money to pay things off and take a trip with DJ and Carly to Paris, France.”
The group set out a schedule for the then-teen and gave her a financial plan for her money.
She was expected to earn at least $1,000 a day to keep her handlers content.
At one point, one of the five went through the woman’s suitcase and removed her passport.
The woman said she was expected to take appointments for sex day and night, leaving little time to sleep.
She said she eventually experienced a breakdown that included a body rash. He also developed a painful scalp condition because she was forced to dye her hair.
After being briefly kicked out of the “business,” in January, 2020, the woman was driven to a hotel in Guelph where she eventually called police to rescue her.
The trial continues Thursday.
@EXPSGamble