Girl, 13, lured on Facebook and forced into sex trade: Toronto police

Toronto police say a 13-year-old girl was forced into prostitution after being lured onFacebookby a 17-year-old girl.

Three people have been charged with human trafficking offences,including the 17-year-old suspect.

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Thevictim was held captive for a month,Insp.JoannaBeaven-Desjardins told reporters on Friday.Duringthattime, the people accused in the caseforced the victimto have sex with clients in Niagara Falls, Toronto and Brampton.

Beaven-Desjardinssaid the victim and the teenage suspecthadmutualFacebookfriends. After talking to eachother on social media, policeallegethat the 17-year-old lured the victim to a meet-up with another one of the accused,22-year-oldKahmal Howard Paris.

Police said it was during that meeting at Paris's Toronto homethat the victim was told she would be taken to Niagara Falls to perform sexual services forclients.

Violence threatened, police say

The victim said she did notwant to do that, but policeallegeParis told her she didn'thave a choice and threatenedviolence if she didn't comply. Police say she was also introduced to the third accused, 19-year-old AlicoAllen.

The three accused then allegedly took thevictim to Niagara Falls, where they rented hotel rooms in order to service clients.

There, Beaven-Desjardins said, Paris and the female accused took pictures of the 13-year-old victim in various states ofundress and posted them in escort ads on backpages.com offering sexual services.

During three days spent in Niagara Falls, Paris allegedly sexually assaulted the victim on three differentoccasions,said Beaven-Desjardins.

From there, the victim was taken back to Toronto by way of Guelph, Ont., and forced to service clients at various hotels in Toronto and Brampton, police say.

Managed to escape

On Nov. 9, police say that Paris became "enraged" with the victim,beat her and then left the residence they were in. While he was gone, investigators say the victim managed to escapethe house and flagdown a citizen, who calledpolice.

All three accused were arrested at Paris's home that day and are now facing more than 20charges. The charges against Paris includetrafficking of a person under the age of 18, sexual assault on a person under 16, making child pornography, uttering threatsand forcible confinement. The female accused, who cannot be identified as she's a minor,is facing eight charges. Allen is charged with trafficking of a person under 18 and procuring and exercising control over a person under 18.

Beaven-Desjardins says these types of cases are fuelled bythe demand for underage sex. She had a message for clients on Friday:that police are coming after them, as well.

"It's obvious when you see this victim that she's 13 years of age," said Beaven-Desjardins. "I'm always surprised that a male wants to have sex with a child. It's very disturbing."

Police also warned that there may be more victims.