Woman guilty of human trafficking says she was also a victim

Despite rehabilitation efforts made by a fourth person convicted of their role in trafficking a Brantford teen in 2019, a Crown attorney said Friday the woman still deserves to go to prison.

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Carly Creor, now 30, has admitted her guilt as part of a five-member group that was taking the newly turned 18-year-old to hotels and motels around southern Ontario, supplying her with drugs, setting up ‘dates’ online and pushing her to have sex with more and more clients.

Rehabilitation needs to be considered, said Crown attorney Heather Palin, “but at the end of the day, the seriousness of the offenses calls out for a penitentiary sentence.”

Palin asked the judge to levy a three-and-a-half year sentence.

Three others have already been convicted in the scheme where the group advertised the young woman, arranged a barrage of clients, providing drugs to help her sleep and wake up, and monitored her movements, all while the group lived in a large Larry Crescent home in Caledonia.

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Eventually the exhausted woman called police from a Guelph hotel room and asked for help.

In January, Creor pleaded guilty to trafficking in a person and advertising sexual services while her co-accused, who had already been sentenced, pleaded guilty to human trafficking, a slightly different offence.

In an agreed statement of fact, Creor admitted to posting the ads, setting prices and connecting with clients. She also noted the victim, who was called ‘Kim’ or ‘Emma’ when she missed appointments.

Defense lawyer Scott Reid not only argued against a prison sentence for his client, but urged Justice Paul Sweeney to give her a conditional sentence where she would essentially serve time under house arrest.

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Reid said the Crown-suggested prison sentence would put Creor under supervision for just three-and-a-half years while a maximum community sentence of two years plus three years of probation would see her monitored for much longer.

More than that, Reid said Creor herself was a victim of others in the group, which was called a “criminal organization” by another judge.

“Abuse is learned behavior,” Reid said, pointing out that, after Creor was arrested, a cousin shared with police that Creor had contacted him earlier about needing help to get away from her abusers.

“(She said) she was being sex trafficked,” Reid said, adding that Creor’s then-partner had got her hooked on opiates and made her go on ‘dates’.

The Crown confirmed investigators had seen the relevant texts and looked at search results on Creor’s phone around that time when she researched how to kill herself.

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Palin indicated she had taken Creor’s “sympathetic” situation into account before suggesting the prison sentence.

“She was deeply entrenched in this overall scheme of trafficking, even if her role was different. If you look at the role that she has admitted to, she was kind of ‘central control’ about what (the victim) was doing on a daily basis.”

A weeping Creor spoke directly to the judge as well, saying she had been in survival mode at the time of the offences and, after trying twice to leave the group, she didn’t feel safe trying again.

“I was dependent on drugs and alcohol and I was financially dependent on the others, having lost contact with my family.

“I had essentially given up hope of ever getting out of that house. I felt accepted and loved by this group and, as a result, became someone I’m not proud of.”

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Creor offered her “deepest and most sincere apologies” to the victim, the court and her family, many of whom were supporting her from the court gallery.

Sweeney is reserving his sentence until the end of August, but will have to consider parity in his decision – a legal principle that means sentences should be similar for those committing similar offenses in similar circumstances.

Daniel Campbell, the undisputed leader of the group, who drew in the victim, was sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison.

Dragisa Lucic, who was Creor’s partner at the time, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years.

Joshua Hillock, who was a driver and sometimes delivered food or drugs to the victim, was sentenced to four years.

Each sentence was reduced by time already served.

Another woman, Crystal-Anne Marier, was acquitted after testifying; she had only been part of the group because Campbell was her partner and drug dealer and she had a serious addiction at the time of her involvement.

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