A man and woman accused of forcing a teenage girl into prostitution have reportedly been caught thanks to the vigilance of a mother who spotted ads online offering her daughter sexual services.
• Also read: A teenager saved thanks to his mother
Jeffrey Audet and Evlyne Lamer are currently on trial on charges related to pimping at the Montreal Courthouse.
They were arrested in 2020 by the Longueuil agglomeration police department for crimes that had occurred almost two years previously.
Through “opportunism” they forced a 17-year-old girl to sell her body in 2018, Crown prosecutor Me Bruno Ménard said this morning.
“There can be no talk of a sophisticated prostitution network here,” he summed up.
Photo Pierre Paul Poulin
Jeffrey Audet
on the run
At the time of the crime, the teenager was on the run with a friend and is said to have met the accused in a motel.
The man and the woman, then 29 and 21 years old, would have led him into prostitution.
“I told them I wanted to go to Quebec. They told me that it takes money and that there is an easy way,” the teenager later told police.
They would then have offered to have sex with clients. According to the alleged victim, the defendants knew that she was a minor.
She initially refused, saying she was too embarrassed, before changing her mind.
“At least 15 customers”
According to her own statements, the young woman has won “at least 15 customers” for more than a week. His ordeal ended when a police officer showed up in his room. Investigator Mario Lavoie then pretended to be a man interested in paying her to receive sexual favors.
It was the teen’s mother who alerted police after finding photos of her daughter on companion sites.
The boy had previously called him from a number the mother did not recognize. By entering this number into a search engine, she had come across pictures of her child in her underwear. In the photos, the mother immediately recognized her daughter’s body.
After each client, the youngster had to give 50% of the money received to Jeffrey Audet. According to the alleged victim, the man was also Evlyne Lamer’s pimp. The latter offered her services under the name “Barbie”.
She would have taken the risqué photos of the teenager and would have written the text to accompany the shots in the ad. With the first clients, it was the two defendants who initially interacted via text messages to negotiate the purchase of sexual services.
Avoid other victims
But it was the alleged victim who spoke to investigator Lavoie, unaware that it was actually a police officer. When he appeared in the room of a motel in Laval, he discussed with the young man. Then he brought him back to his mother.
If she initially refused to tell the police what she had experienced during her escape, she finally agreed to reveal everything.
“I realized that they could do this with other youngsters as well. I decided to denounce,” testified the one whose identity is protected by a publication ban.
The trial continues this week at the Montreal Courthouse before Judge Antoine Piché.
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