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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Madam 'low' for exploiting girl prostitute, mom says
THE mother of a teenager who sold her body for sex confronted the 52-year-old madam who took her daughter's money.
Peggy Doreen Melquist pleaded guilty this week to charges of living off the avails of prostitution and running a common bawdy house.
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Court of Queen's Bench Judge Robert Dewar accepted a joint recommendation from Crown prosecutor Mark Kantor and defence lawyer Gerri Wiebe for a plea bargain after the teen involved in the case died.
The girl cannot be identified.
Melquist owned an inner-city house where the girl crashed after she regularly fled a Child and Family Services group home.
Police found a filthy bedroom littered with a soiled comforter and used condoms.
When she was 14, the girl told officers she took men to the home from December 2005 to May 2006 and had sex with them for cash, court was told.
On Tuesday, before the judge made his ruling, the teen's mother spoke in court.
Her voice trembled as she called Melquist "low."
"I hope they give you the maximum time that you deserve," she said. The woman showed up at the courthouse unexpectedly after reading about the case in the newspaper.
"I'll see you again, lady," she said, before storming out.
Her daughter provided a video statement to police and testified at a pretrial hearing against Melquist.
Dewar acknowledged the Crown had a "reasonable prospect of failure" after the girl died, leading him to accept a concurrent six-month sentence for Melquist on each count. The judge acknowledged the sentence was tempered by Melquist's guilty pleas to two charges.
"(There's) a line people shouldn't cross. Ms. Melquist did," he said.
Wiebe told the court her client struggled with alcohol addiction after separating from her husband in 2003.
Melquist's life spiralled out of control after she moved in with her daughter, who was also involved in the sex trade and grappled with addiction.
As part of the plea bargain, charges against Melquist for a second count of living off the avails of prostitution and procuring were dropped.
Melquist was given double credit for the three months she spent in jail. She was spared more jail time.
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 12, 2009 A4
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