Notorious B.C. pimp, trafficker has sentence reduced on appeal

Reza Moazami is seen exiting Vancouver provincial court in this file photo from December 2011. (CTV News)

Reza Moazami, a B.C. man who was convicted of 30 crimes involving the trafficking, pimping, sexual assault and exploitation of 11 young female victims, has had his prison sentence reduced.

Moazami’s 23-year-sentence – originally handed down in 2015 – was reduced to 20 years and eight months by B.C.’s Court of Appeal Thursday. Moazami was the first person ever convicted of human trafficking in B.C. His victims ranged from 14 to 19 years old, his crimes spanning a two-and-a-half-year period.

“It is important to point out, and indeed to stress, that the appellant’s criminal conduct was grave and morally reprehensible. He engaged in predatory and exploitative criminal behaviour toward a large number of vulnerable young victims. His conduct was punctuated by coercion and sexual violence toward a number of them,” Justice Janet Winteringham wrote in a unanimous decision of the three-judge panel.

“Every one of the appellant’s victims was an individual who suffered indignity at the hands of the appellant. All were traumatized, some severely, to the point that they continued to struggle years afterward.”

Moazami appealed his sentence on multiple grounds and sought to introduce “fresh evidence” about the misconduct of the lead detective on the case, Jim Fisher – who pleaded guilty of breach of trust and sexual exploitation involving one of the victims.

The application to introduce this evidence was dismissed, as was Moazami’s bid for a “sentencing remedy” on constitutional grounds due to “egregious misconduct by state agents,” according to the decision.

Moazami claimed the sentencing judge made a number of legal errors, citing six grounds for appeal – all but one of which was rejected.

The high court found an “error in principle” made by the sentencing judge when weighing the aggravating factors in the case and imposing a sentence longer than the one proposed by Crown counsel.

“The judge justified this position, in part, because the appellant ‘subjected these young, marginalized young women to the fear, stress, and aggravation of a long trial; he re-victimized the complainants and he lied to the court under oath,’” the appeal decision says, quoting in part from the sentencing decision.

“In my respectful view, when the judge explained the higher sentence, she linked it, in error, to the appellant’s decision to proceed with a trial, and in some respects, to the manner in which the trial was conducted. I have concluded the error directly impacted the sentence,” Winteringham wrote, explaining that the court can consider a guilty plea as mitigating but should not treat the exercise of one’s right to trial as aggravating.

Given that error, the court found the judge did not have a legally sound reason to impose a sentence beyond the 20 years and eight months Crown proposed.

“The trial judge found a pressing need for denunciation and deterrence, a conclusion that has not been disturbed on appeal and is fully supported by the evidence at trial and sentencing,” Winteringham wrote.

“Clearly, the appellant’s offending conduct called for a very lengthy penitentiary sentence.”

Moazami also appealed a three-year sentence for attempting to obstruct justice and breaching court-ordered conditions, which was dismissed Thursday. That conviction stemmed from his violation of a no-contact order when he “conspired with a cellmate” to try to prevent one of the complainants from testifying in the trafficking case.