At the beginning of December 2017, the Toronto Police Service Human Trafficking Enforcement Team and 53 Division started an investigation into a Human Trafficking occurrence.
It is alleged that:
- between Sunday, December 31, 2017 and Friday, January 5, 2018, an 18-year-old woman and a 21-year-old woman responded to a job advertisement online
- the job postings were seeking to fill the position of registered massage therapist
- both women separately attended a man's apartment for the posted job interview
- the man recruited and procured the women to work for him in the sex trade
- the man instructed the women that they would have to provide sexual services to clients in exchange for money
- the man took photographs of the women in various stages of undress and posted the advertisements on backpage.com. as well as his own personal website for sexual services
- the man would make the arrangements with clients to attend his apartment to have sex with the women in exchange for money
- the man would threaten the women to gain control over them
- on another occasion, the man sexually assaulted one of the women
- on Friday, January 5, 2018, the women attempted to escape
- the man assaulted one of the women and she fled to notify police and an investigation was started
On Friday, January 5, 2018, David Brown, 57, of Toronto, was arrested. He is charged with:
1) Assault
2) Sexual Assault
3) Assault with a weapon
4) Utter Threats
5) Trafficking in persons by Recruiting
6) Financial/ Material benefit from trafficking in persons over 18.
7) Material Benefit from sexual services
8) Procuring/ Exercise Control
9) Advertising another person’s sexual services
He appeared in court at College Park on Friday, January 5, 2018, room 501.
Police would like to encourage all affected individuals to come forward and report Human Trafficking occurrences to police. We want to make sure that everyone has access to support services and an exit strategy, regardless of their decision to proceed criminally.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-5300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at
www.222tips.com, text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637), or
Leave A Tip on Facebook. Download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World.
A sexual assault is any form of unwanted sexual contact. It includes, but is not limited to, kissing, grabbing, oral sex and penetration. To learn more about sexual assault, including how to report a sexual assault, please visit our
Sex Crimes website.
Human Trafficking means every person who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or exercises control, direction or influence over the movements of a person, for the purpose of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation, for a sexual purpose or a forced labour purpose. Victims can be men, women or children; can be Canadian citizens; and can be moved across local, provincial or national borders. They can be coerced through violence or the threat of violence against family and friends. The Human Trafficking Enforcement Team of Sex Crimes is dedicated to investigating these crimes against vulnerable members of society. For more information, please visit the Sex Crimes website.
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TPSnews.ca