Man pleads guilty to human trafficking

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This article was published 25/08/2023 (804 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Quebec man pleaded guilty in Manitoba provincial court to human trafficking this week in a case that began with a traffic stop on the Perimeter Highway more than 2 1/2 years ago.

Jean Francois D’Asti-Brideau, 28, of Laval, pleaded to one count each of trafficking in persons and procuring sexual services on Thursday after an earlier trial.

The 23-year-old woman from a small Quebec town who he trafficked to Winnipeg to sell sex was in the courtroom.

Defence lawyer Tony Kavanagh and Crown prosecutor Nicole Roch are expected to jointly recommend a sentence that will include jail time, but will dispute how much the time he has already spent behind bars should factor in.

Roch read out details of the case from an agreed statement of facts to provincial court Judge Murray Thompson.

D’Asti-Brideau was first arrested by RCMP on Jan. 19, 2021, after a concerned citizen spotted what looked like a physical altercation between D’Asti-Brideau and the woman in a rental vehicle on the Perimeter.

An RCMP officer pulled the vehicle over at the intersection of Highway 7 and noted the woman looked sickly and had bruising under her eyes. He arrested D’Asti-Brideau, who was yelling at her.

She flew home to Quebec after declining to provide a statement to police.

D’Asti-Brideau was convicted of weapons offences related to the January arrest and jailed until June 2021. He was rearrested in June 2022 on human trafficking charges in Kamloops, B.C., where he was again found in the woman’s company, Roch told court.

Roch said the woman, whose formal education ended at Grade 9, got addicted to unspecified drugs at age 16, and later met D’Asti-Brideau at a party when she was 19, about six months after she began doing sex work in Quebec.

The woman, who spoke little English and had not travelled previously outside of Quebec, did not have a driver’s licence or credit card. She had only a provincial health card as identification.

“She had no meaningful employment history and she was still addicted to drugs,” Roch told court. “D’Asti-Brideau was older, had travelled outside Quebec and spoke English.”

After their relationship began, D’asti-Brideau rented a car in Quebec and took the woman across Canada to British Columbia, before renting another car to go to Winnipeg, Roch said.

“His intent was to assist (her) in advertising sexual services for sale, and have potential clients meet with her at the Hilton Garden Inn on Sterling Lyon Parkway … to receive sexual services in exchange for money,” she said.

They arrived in Winnipeg on Jan. 17, 2021, and the woman rented a hotel room adjacent to the Outlet Collection shopping mall, which they chose because it didn’t require a credit card for check-in.

Over the course of two days, ads were posted online about her sexual services. The contact number attached to the ads was D’Asti-Brideau’s phone and numerous people contacted them via the ads.

She would be paid, and the money would be kept in the vehicle with D’Asti-Brideau or in the room safe.

Her earnings supported D’Asti-Brideau, paying for meals, fuel, hotels, Airbnb reservations, cannabis and rental cars. He influenced her to continue working in the sex trade, Roch said.

“On Jan. 19, (the victim) expressed to D’Asti-Brideau that she had had enough of sex work and wanted to return to her mother in Quebec,” Roch said, which led to an argument over text messages.

D’Asti-Brideau engaged in threats, psychological manipulation and emotional abuse, Roch told court, reading text messages he sent, including threats to kick down the hotel room’s door.

From Quebec, the woman’s mother called a cab to assist her in leaving, while she was contacting friends to try to get back to her home province.

D’Asti-Brideau persuaded her to stay with him, and sent the cab away. They got in the rental vehicle and made their way to the Perimeter, where he was first arrested.

Thompson will sentence D’Asti-Brideau in early September.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca