A pimp will spend the next 12 months in jail after pleading guilty to living off a sex worker's earnings, a Vancouver Provincial Court judge ruled Jan. 27, 2022.
Jemuel Norman Scott, 27, appeared before Judge Joseph Galati on charges of procuring and benefiting from sexual services. He pleaded guilty to the benefiting charge while the procuring count was stayed.
"It was an exploitative and parasitic relationship," Galati said. "He pressured her to lower rates charged and kind of sexual services she would provide all... for the purpose of generating more money."
Galati said the offence took place over three months in late 2016 and early 2017.
Scott and the 22-year-old woman, who cannot be named under a publication ban, met in Alberta in 2016.
She had been working as a prostitute, Galati said.
Galati said Scott proposed that she begin escorting with him as her pimp. They began travelling around Alberta and soliciting sexual services online.
She was seeing three to four clients a day, the judge said.
The court docket shows charges dealing with issues alleged to have occurred in Vancouver and the Alberta communities of Edmonton, Sherwood Park and Lloydminster.
She left him in December 2016.
Soon, though, Scott was asking her for money, claiming he was living on the street in Toronto, the judge said. He wanted her to sell sex again and send him money.
Scott returned to Alberta in January 2016, sending the woman a text. Soon, they were back together and travelled to B.C.
Scott remained unemployed but drove her to sex work calls.
At one point, Scott wanted her to lower her rates and to work without condoms, all the while maintaining control over her wallet, ID and passport, Galati said.
The judge noted the only suggestion of violence was when Scott said he would "stomp the s--t out of her" if she told friends what they were doing.
She soon called the police.
Galati said the woman's victim impact statement makes plain the situation has had severe detrimental impacts on her.
"She fears retaliation from Mr. Scott," said the judge.
The Crown had sought 12 months imprisonment, while Scott's defence wanted a conditional sentence of two years less a day. Galati said incarceration was warranted and sentenced Scott to 345 days and two years of probation.
The judge noted Scott's guilty plea indicated acceptance of responsibility and remorse and that Scott apologized to the victim in court.
Galati took judicial notice that Scott had a hard childhood in poverty and has experienced racism.
"Call my mom," Scott called to a woman in the gallery. "I'll be out in eight months probably, two-thirds."
Scott was to be sentenced on Jan. 5, but police were waiting for him at the courthouse to arrest him on a Canada-wide warrant.
The warrant had to do with charges of assault, procuring for a financial material benefit, trafficking in persons by recruiting, uttering threats and assault with a weapon, among other charges, RCMP E Division spokesperson Cpl. Troy Savinkoff said.
The sex-related charges all fall under the Criminal Code of Canada section on the commodification of sexual activity.
The warrants were all out of Toronto.
