Court told how ‘vulnerable’ teen sexually exploited for profit

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This article was published 19/09/2017 (2410 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man who made money from an underage girl in the sex trade at a West Broadway apartment where Tina Fontaine spent some of her last days has been released from jail.

Jesse Thomas, 32, pleaded guilty this week to a single charge of receiving a material benefit from sexual services provided by a person under 18, was given credit for more than two years he’d already spent behind bars, and was released to complete 18 months of probation after Crown and defence lawyers reached a plea bargain.

Thomas and three others previously faced human-trafficking charges after police discovered a 17-year-old girl had been doing sex work inside an apartment building on the 400 block of Furby Street, but those charges never played out in court.

Two other young women who also spent time at that apartment suite, 15-year-old Tina Fontaine and her cousin, 29-year-old Jeanenne Fontaine, are now dead.

Thomas was set to begin a week-long trial Monday, but instead pleaded guilty, admitting he was present and received money from the sex work of a 17-year-old girl with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder between May and June 2015.

The girl was a ward of Child and Family Services, a chronic runaway, and someone who struggled with addictions. She was, as Crown attorney Daniel Chaput said, “vulnerable”.

The girl was advertised under a fake name and photo on an online classifieds site and her real age wasn’t given. Court heard Thomas would be present when she met johns — sometimes he stayed in the washroom of the Furby Street apartment or went with her to “out calls” — and would take a cut of the money she made.

“Effectively, Mr. Thomas was providing a presence and some form of security, whether you want to use that term or not,” Chaput told court. He said the 17-year-old had been willing to testify against Thomas and was “thankful” he pleaded guilty.

“These are serious offences and the proliferation of such offences and allegations in the justice system is concerning, and ought to be concerning to the court,” he added. “We’re dealing with vulnerable young women who tend to be preyed upon by the likes of Mr. Thomas and others, and those who would engage their services.”

The charge to which Thomas pleaded guilty carries a minimum sentence of two years, and Court of Queen’s Bench Justice James Edmond agreed with the recommendation from Chaput and defence lawyer Laura Robinson to sentence him to the 2.2 years he’s already spent in jail. While Thomas has convictions for drugs and violating court orders, he doesn’t have prior sexual or violent offences on his record.

Robinson told the judge her client was remorseful and planned to work as a telemarketer upon his release.

Two other men, twin brothers who knew the 17-year-old was being exploited, were also charged with human trafficking in connection with the Furby Street apartment.

Eric Wirffel pleaded guilty to receiving a material benefit from sexual services and was sentenced to two years in prison. Charges against Clinton Wirffel were dropped after a preliminary inquiry in June 2016.

Jeanenne Fontaine, 27 at the time, told court she had been forced to take photos of the 17-year-old girl at the Furby Street address that were intended to be used to advertise escort services. She tearfully pleaded guilty to advertising sexual services and was released in December 2016, with credit for 323 days served.

Within four months of her release from jail, Fontaine was killed — though Winnipeg police have said she wasn’t the intended target of a shooting and fire at her North End home this spring.

Three men, Christopher Matthew Brass, Malcolm Miles Mitchell and Jason Michael Meilleur, have been charged with homicide- and arson-related offences in her death.

The August 2014 homicide of Fontaine’s cousin Tina, who visited the Furby Street apartment before she went missing and was later found dead in the Red River, sparked national calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay