Quebec’s attorney general has opened proceedings to seize a residence in Abitibi-Témiscamingue where gruesome crimes, including the sexual exploitation of people, may have been committed for more than a decade.
• Also read: A man from Rouyn-Noranda has been arrested on human trafficking charges
According to a court document seen by Le Journal, James Testa’s home at Rang du Lac-Boisclair in Rouyn-Noranda is now subject to an order blocking the proceeds of crime.
This modest property, valued at just over $100,000 according to the land registry, would likely have been the setting for a real-life horror movie for 11 years.
James Testa, defendant. Photo from James’ Facebook
Since December last year, the 55-year-old, who made local headlines, has had to deal with a total of around thirty of the most nasty and violent allegations.
control
Between 2011 and 2022, according to the charges in his file, he targeted no fewer than eleven victims, both men and women.
It is said that one of them was only 12 years old when the abuse began.
Exploitation, physical harm, assault with a weapon or strangulation, death threats and harassment are alleged to have been committed against these individuals, whose identities are protected by a court order.
During this time, the defendants are said to have exercised control over some of them on several occasions in order to sexually exploit them and even forced one of them to commit bestiality.
Using violence and threats, kidnapping and imprisonment, he allegedly forced his victims to commit acts of violence and sexual acts against their will.
Material benefit
During this time, Testa allegedly “benefited from a material benefit that he knew resulted directly or indirectly from the crime,” the court document said.
Here we see Testa’s dilapidated house, equipped with several satellite saucers, with four vehicles parked in front of it. Screenshot from Google Map 2013
It is also due in part to an affidavit from an Integrated Anti-Pimping Team (EILP) investigator that this property blocking order was ordered, according to the order.
The residence acquired in 2006 cannot therefore be sold or refinanced until the court lifts this ban.
At the time of purchase, the man, who according to the sales deed was unemployed, had purchased this house for approximately $40,000 with his partner, who was also affected by the freeze request.
In addition, when he was arrested in December 2022, Testa is said to have had a prohibited weapon in his possession without a license, namely an electrical impulse device, commonly called a “Taser weapon”.
The latter remains in custody until the trial is completed.
His case is due back in court next month.
–With Philippe Langlois, Bureau of Investigation
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