Man arrested, accused of abuse, human trafficking
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2018 (2611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Winnipeg man faces a slew of charges — including human trafficking — after allegedly threatening, assaulting, confining and pimping out an Ontario woman, in what police describe as an unusually vicious and brutal string of crimes.
“This is not something that we typically see, at all. Even in my 25 years of doing this, I can’t think of many things that can come close to this,” Winnipeg Police Service Const. Rob Carver said on Thursday.
Under threats of violence, the accused forced a woman to travel to Winnipeg from southern Ontario. Once in the city, the man held the woman captive and forced her to work as an escort, police said.
The man is alleged to have repeatedly assaulted the woman with electric shocks, and confined her in a freezer on numerous occasions.
She was reportedly held in captivity and forced into sex work for four months before she managed to escape to a police station.
“It looks like the only way she could get out is if she was seeing a ‘John.’ She indicated to us that she was seeing a ‘John,’ and got somebody to drive her to a police station,” Carver said.
The WPS counter exploitation unit began its investigation into the matter on Aug. 6.
A warrant for the man’s arrest was issued not long after. Nonetheless, it took nearly a month before a suspect was arrested.
“We couldn’t find him. We issued a warrant for his arrest shortly after our dealings with her, but it took us a month until we were able to bring this individual into custody,” Carver said.
Members of the WPS tactical support team arrested the suspect this past Sunday on the 500 block of Maryland Street.
Andres Michael Pavao, 29, of Winnipeg, faces 12 charges, including: human trafficking, procuring a person for sexual services, forcible confinement, uttering threats, overcoming resistance by choking and assault with a weapon.
Police said Pavao was born in Winnipeg, but had been living in southern Ontario for some time before he allegedly forced the woman to travel back to his hometown with him.
He has been detained in custody. The allegations have not been proven in court.
While Pavao was not previously known to local police, he had run-ins with the law in Ontario, including a 2012 incident where he was charged with impersonating a police officer, robbery, break and enter and drugs and weapons offences.
ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe