A pimp who makes his victim travel hundreds of miles so she can make him more money by increasing the number of customers will have to think longer in prison.
Erickson Angibeau was found guilty of pimping, advertising his victim's sexual services and obtaining a material advantage.
The facts go back to 2020. The defendant was leaving prison when he went to his victim. He accused her of being in prison because of her. At his request, the then 28-year-old woman went to Ontario to attract customers.
For a year and a half, they moved from hotel to hotel between Belleville, Kingston and Toronto, the victim testified during the trial.
“He makes the appointments, I make the clients,” the woman, whose identity is protected by a court order, said from the Longueuil courthouse during the trial last summer.
She can serve up to 10 clients per day, she added.
“Exaggerations”
Although his testimony enabled his pimp to be convicted, Judge Benoit Gariépy still expressed some reservations about the victim's credibility.
He noted several “exaggerations and implausibilities” in his account that forced him to acquit the pimp of charges of human trafficking, assault and harassment. For example, he believes the victim when she says the defendant hit her, but also points out that she was often the one who triggered the violence. She is said to have once stabbed her in the arm with a pair of scissors during a fight.
“She is the person who is attacking,” he concluded.
But as far as the pimping-related allegations are concerned, the evidence is clear, Judge Gariépy added.
“What interest would he have had in accompanying such an unstable person who has filed a criminal complaint against him to various hotels in Ontario other than to benefit himself?” he said. .
He also concluded that Angibeau was the one who exposed his victim's sexual services online, negotiated with customers, set prices but also set the woman's wages.
Pressure on the victim
The 32-year-old defendant was also found guilty of obstruction of justice for pressuring her to withdraw her complaint in another case in Saint-Jérôme.
He forced her to call the prosecutor and whispered to his victim what to say. She then claimed that she lied in her statement to police because she was angry. An audio recording of this call was heard during the trial.
At the same time as Angibeau, the victim's neighbor and former friend was also arrested. Johanne Gagné was accused of profiting from gifts, including a Versace necklace, beauty treatments and a loudspeaker, purchased by Angibeau with money from the victim's sexual services. She was also accused of helping the pimp pressure the woman into withdrawing her complaint.
Ms Gagné was acquitted yesterday.
Angibeau has been incarcerated since his arrest last year and must remain in the shadows. His sentence will be decided in the coming months.
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