Another week in the trial of four people accused of human trafficking ended Friday after two days of testimony from one of the accused about her involvement with a young Brantford woman who was in the sex trade.
On Thursday, Crystal-Anne Marier, 36, a long-time personal support worker, explained her slide into addiction with her husband, which resulted in separation from her spouse, a deepening addiction, eviction, the loss of her children and a suicide attempt .
“(The drugs) were all I cared about. I didn’t pay my bills. My life spirals out of control.”
During that period, Marier said she took up with her drug dealer, Daniel Campbell, who is co-accused in the case, along with Joshua Hillock and Dragisa Lucic. A fifth person – Carly Creor, 27, is also accused in the case but faces a separate trial. Each face charges of trafficking for sexual services and benefiting from sex work.
The complainant, who had just turned 18 at the time of the alleged incidents, tested for 12 days, telling the court the five people cooperated to advertise her services online, drive her to various hotels around southern Ontario, feed her, give her drugs and collect her payments.
Marier tested on her own behalf that, after a multi-week hospital stay, she returned to drugs and Campbell and moved in with the others to a Larry Crescent home in Caledonia.
She said she had little to do with the young complainant.
“We were at odds,” she said, due to the young woman’s relationship with Campbell.
Under cross examination by the Crown, Marier said she knew the group was moving the woman around to hotels and delivering food to her.
Campbell referred to the five of them as a “team” or “family” in messages.
“You would help,” said Crown lawyer Susan Orlando, from Ontario’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Team, about the allegations the group of five were organizing the sale of the complainant.
“You would help driving (her), buying her what she needed. You many not have done it as much as they did but you were definitely helping.”
“No,” insisted Marier.
Orlando walked Marier through dozens of pages of banking records and phone messages.
Evidence presented showed Marier put Campbell on his bank account even though he had his own account at a different bank.
Campbell moved large sums of money in and out of the account and received e-transfers but Marier said she hadn’t paid attention to those funds even though her account was often near zero or in overdraft.
Marier’s text messages showed the group was using some sort of code to identify locations for meeting places and Orlando pointed out that Marier never indicated to those texting that she didn’t know what those codes meant.
The records also show Marier and Campbell were often fighting over money and the complainant, including saying each other would be in trouble for “kidnapping” her.
Marier also became good friends with Creor, and agreed to help Creor “cover” a weekend by arranging the client services for the complainant, but Marier said she didn’t end up helping her.
Messages show Marier asking whether she had to “go in with her” when she was dropping off the complainant and noting she “forgot to bring the condoms in.”
Orlando showed Marier a series of messages from Marier’s ex-spouse asking about her involvement in the incident which was, by then, under investigation by police.
“My only involvement was picking her up and dropping her off. What if I say I didn’t know?” Marry messaged her ex.
“Isn’t that what you’ve done today?” asked Orlando.
“You coming into court and saying you didn’t know was all part of the plan to try and ensure you didn’t go to jail.”
“No, it was not,” Marier said.
The trial returns to court on Aug. 15.
@EXPSGamble