A Quebec man has been sentenced to four years in prison for human trafficking as he faces new allegations of continuing to exploit his female victim while in custody.
Jean Francois D’Asti-Brideau, 29, of Laval, pleaded to one count each of trafficking in persons and procuring sexual services following a trial in Winnipeg last year.
Crown and defence lawyers jointly recommended D’Asti-Brideau serve four years in prison but disagreed how much credit he should receive for pre-sentence custody.
Offenders are typically credited 1.5 days for every day served prior to sentencing.
Crown attorney Nicole Roch argued D’Asti-Brideau wasn’t entitled to “enhanced credit” in light of allegations he continued to contact the victim hundreds of times by phone while in jail, defying a court order he have no contact with the woman.
Court records show D’Asti-Brideau has been charged with one count each of human trafficking, obstruction of justice, procuring, receiving a material benefit and uttering threats for offences allegedly committed while in custody.
“While on remand there have been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of phone calls to the protected person … and in the context of those phone calls there has been significant ongoing manipulation of the victim and ongoing criminal offences,” Roch told provincial court Judge Murray Thompson. “The unending and unrelenting communication with the victim constitutes an unending and unrelenting attempt to continue exploiting the victim.”
Defence lawyer Tony Kavanagh urged Thompson to maintain the enhanced credit, arguing D’Asti-Brideau will have to deal with the new charges at a later date.
Thompson sided with the Crown, telling D’Asti-Brideau enhanced credit was meant to provide offenders an inducement to “behave appropriately” while in custody.
D’Asti-Brideau received one day credit for every day served in pre-sentence custody, leaving him nearly 22 months left to serve.
According to an agreed statement of facts previously provided to court, D’Asti-Brideau was first arrested by RCMP on Jan. 19, 2021, after a concerned citizen spotted what looked like a physical altercation between D’Asti-Brideau and the woman in a rental vehicle on the Perimeter.
An RCMP officer pulled the vehicle over at the intersection of Highway 7 and noted the woman looked sickly and had bruising under her eyes. He arrested D’Asti-Brideau, who was yelling at her.
She flew home to Quebec after declining to provide a statement to police.
D’Asti-Brideau was convicted of weapons offences related to the January arrest and jailed until June 2021. He was rearrested in June 2022 on human trafficking charges in Kamloops, B.C., where he was again found in the woman’s company.
Court heard the woman became addicted to unspecified drugs at age 16, and later met D’Asti-Brideau at a party when she was 19, about six months after she began doing sex work in Quebec.
The woman, who spoke little English and had not travelled previously outside of Quebec, did not have a driver’s licence or credit card. She had only a provincial health card as identification.
“She had no meaningful employment history and she was still addicted to drugs,” Roch told court at a hearing last year. “D’Asti-Brideau was older, had travelled outside Quebec and spoke English.”
After their relationship began, D’asti-Brideau rented a car in Quebec and took the woman across Canada to British Columbia, before renting another car to go to Winnipeg, Roch said.
“His intent was to assist (her) in advertising sexual services for sale, and have potential clients meet with her at the Hilton Garden Inn on Sterling Lyon Parkway … to receive sexual services in exchange for money,” she said.
They arrived in Winnipeg on Jan. 17, 2021, and the woman rented a hotel room adjacent to the Outlet Collection shopping mall, which they chose because it didn’t require a credit card for check-in.
Over the course of two days, ads were posted online about her sexual services. The contact number attached to the ads was D’Asti-Brideau’s phone and numerous people contacted them via the ads.
She would be paid, and the money would be kept in the vehicle with D’Asti-Brideau or in the room safe.
Her earnings supported D’Asti-Brideau, paying for meals, fuel, hotels, Airbnb reservations, cannabis and rental cars. He influenced her to continue working in the sex trade, Roch said.
“On Jan. 19, (the victim) expressed to D’Asti-Brideau that she had had enough of sex work and wanted to return to her mother in Quebec,” Roch said, which led to an argument over text messages.
D’Asti-Brideau engaged in threats, psychological manipulation and emotional abuse, Roch told court, reading text messages he sent, including threats to kick down the hotel room’s door.
From Quebec, the woman’s mother called a cab to assist her in leaving, while she was contacting friends to try to get back to her home province.
D’Asti-Brideau persuaded her to stay with him, and sent the cab away. They got in the rental vehicle and made their way to the Perimeter, where he was first arrested.
D’Asti-Brideau maintained he and the victim were in a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, even though he controlled her work in the sex trade, Thompson said Friday.
“It was clear to me it was an exploitative relationship,” Thompson said. “The reason he remained was not out of love, she was his meal ticket.”
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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