Peel Regional Police spokesman Sgt. Zeke Shah told The Toronto Sun a man was arrested after a 20-year-old woman was coerced into prostitution.
"At this point, (there is) just one victim," said Shah.
Shah said a 20-year-old woman went to police earlier, complaining that a man was using intimidation and threats to force her to be a sex slave.
The woman had sex with clients in numerous motel rooms around Peel Region and handed over thousands of dollars to her pimp over just a few weeks' time.
The Peel Police vice squad has been a national leader in pursuing human trafficking cases since the new charge was added to the Criminal Code. They have laid the most charges under the new section, laid the first charge ever in April of 2007 and have registered the only two convictions to date.
Earlier this week, a 20-year-old man pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges involving a Montreal woman he forced to work as a prostitute in Mississauga. He was given a three-year sentence in Brampton court Monday.
"These two convictions in Peel Region are the result of some courageous victims, police officers and prosecutors," University of B.C. human trafficking expert Benjamin Perrin told The Sun. "Human trafficking does not exist only in Brampton and Mississauga."
The victim in the latest case was also forced to follow an explicit set of rules set down by her pimp, who required her to hand over almost complete control of her life to him.
Vytautas Vilutis, 21, of Mississauga is charged with human trafficking, exercising control of a prostitute, living off the avails of prostitution, assault, two counts of uttering threats to cause bodily harm or death and possession of a controlled substance.
Stemming from a separate incident earlier this year, he was also charged with theft under $5,000.
jstewart@mississauga.net
