Halifax man jailed after forcing woman into prostitution, denying her food

HALIFAX — A Halifax man who pushed a young woman back into prostitution, and admitted threatening to chop her up and serve her at a dinner party, has been sentenced to 16 months in jail.

Leslie Gray advertised the woman’s sexual services on a classifieds website, setting up to 20 appointments a day, and then took all the money she earned.

“(She) was not given food to eat, so she resorted to stealing to feed herself,” according to an agreed statement of facts presented at Gray’s recent sentencing.

“On a few occasions, she tried to keep some change, but Leslie Gray caught her, became angry and accused her of stealing his money.”

The young woman, who was 20 when she met Gray on Canada Day 2015, contracted HIV while working for him, according to the agreed facts.

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She was a drug addict, and had already been a sex trade worker — she had previously been sold from one former pimp to another — when she met Gray through her then-boyfriend.

The woman earned more than $10,000 between May and October 2016, and gave it all to Gray.

She listened as Gray and his brother Andre discussed throwing her body into a river, “and that no one would care that she was gone,” according to the agreed facts.

The brothers referenced the 2013 film “The Purge,” about an annual event in which all illegal acts are decriminalized for 12 hours, and said she would be the first person they would kill.

“Leslie Gray said that he would cut her up with a butcher knife, chop her into pieces, put her in his fridge and feed her to his dinner party,” according to the agreed facts.

“(She) was very afraid.”

In the fall of 2016, Gray found brochures that Halifax police vice officers had given her about getting out of the sex trade. He laughed at her and told her she was useless — and that if she came forward she would be dead.

Then, in late October 2016, she went to a hospital after missing a methadone dose. When she got out, she went to police.

Gray pleaded guilty to advertising sexual services, receiving benefit from prostitution and human trafficking, and uttering threats.

Chris Hansen, spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service, said Gray was sentenced on Jan. 11 to a total of 16 months in jail, as well as 24 months of probation. He will also be on the sex offender registry for 20 years, and have a firearms prohibition of 10 years.

The Canadian Press