SURREY — Two Surrey residents accused of forcing four women into prostitution and making them hand over all of their earnings have been convicted of a number of criminal charges.
According to online court records, Sean Ewart Kevin Adams and Natasha Renee Vaugeois appeared in B.C. Provincial Court in Surrey on Monday, where the judgment was delivered.
Following a trial, Adams was found guilty of six charges, while Vaugeois was convicted of 12. The charges included extortion, assault, assault with a weapon, uttering threats, living on the avails of prostitution, robbery, unlawful confinement, procuring a person to be a prostitute and compelling and using threats to live on the avails of prostitution.
The incidents that led to the charges took place in 2010 and 2011 in Surrey.
A 17-year-old crack user who was staying in an apartment in the building where Adams lived was threatened, extorted and assaulted by Vaugeois, who compelled the youth to become a prostitute.
A 39-year-old woman, who was a sex-trade worker and drug addict, was assaulted multiple times over a number of months by Adams and Vaugeois. She handed over the money she made from sex work to pay down a debt to Adams.
A 19-year-old single mother visiting a friend in Surrey was confined in Vaugeois’s home, forced to perform oral sex on clients and hand over the money to Vaugeois. At one point, Vaugeois slapped the woman in the face repeatedly.
The fourth victim was a 26-year-old drug addict, who was forced by Adams into prostitution to pay back a debt and $2,000 “tax†after she stole some money. The woman was punched and kicked by Vaugeois at Adams’s direction.
Sentencing is scheduled for February 2015.
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