Sentencing
A story about the impending sentencing of the metro guard convicted of pimping underage girls that he met while on the job:
Pimp charmed victims, court hears
Metro cop guilty; First gave ice cream, later extracted cash
The Gazette
November 08, 2006
Luring young women into prostitution has become so lucrative in Montreal, many criminals choose that over dealing drugs, a Montreal police detective specializing in sexual exploitation testified yesterday.
As a backdrop to sentencing arguments for Alain Jean-Pierre, 31, a metro police officer convicted of living off the avails of prostitution, Det.-Sgt. Dominic Monchamp painted a picture of a burgeoning business in escort agencies, massage parlours, strip clubs and pornographic movies.
He said his specialized squad, set up in 2002 with 15 full-time investigators to cover the entire province, has since been reduced to eight members despite the rise of exploitation of increasingly younger girls.
There are two main types of pimps - those who use violence to control their "merchandise" and those who use charm to fill a void in the life of a young, neglected girl, Monchamp said.
Jean-Pierre's trial was told he belonged to the second group, whose aura is fed by hip-hop music in which pimps are portrayed as desirable and cool. Jean-Pierre would wear his metro police uniform, approach teenage girls and offer them ice cream.
He'd court them with flowers and gifts, telling them they could make more money dancing naked than working at a fast-food restaurant. Once they agreed to dance naked, sexual favours were demanded for customers, so the girls made thousands of dollars a week. Most of the money was turned over to Jean-Pierre, who held the girls in his grip.
One of his victims, a 16-year-old whose name cannot be published, was taken to a bar where she performed oral sex and contact dances. She didn't want to do it, Quebec Court Judge Jean-Pierre Boyer wrote after finding Jean-Pierre guilty in May, but she felt she didn't have a choice if she wanted to win back her pimp, who had promised his love to other girls.
Jean-Pierre was arrested in February 2003 after undercover police observed him shuttling women to and from strip clubs.
Sentencing arguments are to be heard Nov. 30.
