The Supreme Court of Canada said it won’t hear the appeal of a B.C. man with 30 convictions connected to sex trafficking of females under 18.
The June 30 decision came after B.C.’s Court of Appeal upheld the convictions last September.
That court found Reza Moazami had not established a miscarriage of justice.
Moazami appealed the 2014 convictions stemming from a 36‑count indictment involving prostitution-related, sexual and human trafficking offences against 11 female complainants between the ages of 14 and 19, committed between 2009 and 2011. Nine of the complainants were under the age of 18 at the time of the offences.
In a separate decision, the court also threw out an appeal of a conviction of obstruction of justice and breach of a no-contact order.
Moazami was sentenced to 23 years in prison, before pre-trial custody credits.
The girls had worked as prostitutes in Vancouver, North Vancouver, Richmond, Nanaimo, Calgary and Edmonton and Montreal.
The trial court heard tales of violence, intimidation and exploitation as well as the drugging of victims.
“The judge found Mr. Moazami’s actions to some of the complainants were cruel and coercive, and met the predatory standards demanded by the offences on which she convicted,” B.C.’s appeal court said.
The Ottawa high court gave no reasons for its decision — as is customary.
The Vancouver Police Department’s Counter Exploitation Unit, which handles situations involving violence, exploitation, youth and human trafficking, did the Moazami investigation.
James Fisher was the lead investigator. He later pleaded guilty to one count of breach of trust by kissing one victim in 2015 and one count each of sexual exploitation and breach of trust involving another. He received a 20-month sentence on the convictions.
The case was British Columbia's first human trafficking case related to minors.
