CBC News - Manitoba - Winnipeg woman charged with human trafficking

Forced younger woman into sex work after taking identification

Last Updated: Thursday, September 23, 2010 | 3:48 PM CT

CBC News

Winnipeg police have laid the first charge of human trafficking in Manitoba against a 38-year-old woman accused of forcing a younger aboriginal woman into sex work. (CBC)

A Winnipeg woman has been charged with human trafficking, the first time such a charge has been laid in Manitoba, police say.

Theresa Peebles, 38, has been charged with three counts of trafficking in persons, forcible confinement and assault. She remains in custody.

Police were called to a disturbance Tuesday involving Peebles and a 21-year-old aboriginal woman on Aikins Street in the city's North End.

Upon investigating further, police say they found that earlier this month Peebles had befriended the younger woman, who is from northern Manitoba and was staying at an aboriginal women's shelter at the time.

Police allege Peebles confined the woman in her house and gained control of her property, including her identification documents, and forced her to work as a sex trade worker — keeping all of her earnings.

Police also allege Peebles assaulted the younger woman and twice prevented her from escaping.

"The best way to describe it [is] we have an individual whose human rights have been violated to an extreme," said Winnipeg police Const. Jason Michalyshen.

Generally, people think of human trafficking as something that occurs to foreigners who are brought into Canada illegaly from abroad.

"People think that people are being transported from one country to another country for the purposes of working and sweat shops and things like that," he said. "In this particular case, it becomes very localized [when] you know it's happening in our own backyard."

Human trafficking has been outlawed in Canada since 2005.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/09/23/manitoba-human-trafficking-charge-winnipeg.html#ixzz10SrTMPWg

CBC News - Manitoba - Winnipeg woman charged with human trafficking

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Ex-Sex Slave Raises Awareness About Human Trafficking | WBNS-10TV, Central Ohio News

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Saturday, January 9, 2010 11:39 PM
Updated: Sunday, January 10, 2010 7:54 AM

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A woman on Saturday got the chance to thank the police officer who she said saved her from a life of human trafficking.

The women's shelter, Rahab's Hideaway, hosted the "Beauty for Ashes" awareness and fund raiser Saturday, 10TV's Glenn McEntyre reported.

Former trafficking victim Rosita Curry shared her personal experience.

"Human trafficking is a new term to a lot of people. But for many, it has been away of life for way too long," Curry said. "I was forced by a man to sell dogs, drugs and then myself."

Curry's life of prostitution ended when she was arrested by Columbus police Detective Jeff Ackley in April, McEntyre reported.

"He wasn't one of the cops I thought he was," Curry said. "I made the statement, 'You don't care, you're just gonna lock me up,' But he proved me wrong."

When he was reunited with Curry, Ackley said she looked like a completely different girl.

"It's so rare to see a girl escape and do something with her life and just do good," Ackley said. "We are so happy and thrilled to death."

James Pond, the founder and executive director of Transitions Global, an organization that builds new lives for survivors of sex trafficking, said that human trafficking is a reality in central Ohio.

"Ohio in particular has a very unique issue because there are a lot of major freeways for transport," Pond said.

The U.S. State Department estimates between 15,000 and 18,000 women and girls in the U.S. are forced into trafficking each year, McEntyre reported.


Ex-Sex Slave Raises Awareness About Human Trafficking | WBNS-10TV, Central Ohio News

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