A Guelph woman who was the victim of human trafficking says her sense of self worth has been damaged to the point where she still feels like its her fault it happened.
Marcus Sinclair, 30, the man guilty of pimping the woman over a seven-year period, was sentenced to 30 months in jail Thursday morning at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on the charge of human trafficking.
Defence had asked for a sentence of 18 months. The prosecution was seeking between three and four years.
In her victim impact statement, the woman identified only as “A.F.” said the experience has completely changed her life.
“He took away my self worth, my confidence, like I was only good enough to sell myself and I wasn’t worth more than even that,” the victim wrote.
“I still cry over this situation even though it’s been many years because of the way he would mentally abuse me and me (it) seem like this was all my fault,” the victim said. “After a while I just believed him and to this day I feel like it’s still my fault this happened.”
She said she has trouble keeping a job, struggles financially, experiences severe mood swings, has trouble maintaining relationships and feels traumatized in certain surroundings.
“I just want this to be over. I’ll never be the same again.”
In her 20-page decision, Justice Nancy Mossip said that the victim impact statement shows in a “very personal and sad way … the great toil that human trafficking has on its victims.
“She is convinced she will never be the same, and that she will never get over the experience of being a victim of human trafficking,” Mossip said.
Mossip said the most significant sentencing principals to be addressed in her sentence were general deterrence and the public denunciation of human trafficking.
While Mossip credited Sinclair for the “genuine efforts” he has made to rehabilitate himself the past two years while on bail, and said she has no doubt Sinclair regrets his conduct, she noted that he “takes no responsibility for the harm caused to A.F. by his actions.”
At a previous sentencing hearing Sinclair told Justice Mossip that “I just want to help people” and that wanting to help people “got me into this situation.”
Court heard earlier that Sinclair first met the victim, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, in 2007 in Toronto. She was “homeless, penniless and had no family or friends in Toronto."
Over the next seven years she had sex for money with Sinclair acting as her pimp — placing ads for her services in publications, occasionally hiding in the closet while clients were serviced and taking money from her.
Sinclair constantly degraded and insulted the victim and that there was a “psychological chain around the neck” of the victim.
On Thursday, Sinclair was also fined $500 on a theft-under charge that stemmed from stealing the victim’s cell phone and tablet.
