I’m the one laughing now, victim tells B.C. sex trafficker at sentencing hearing

One of the victims of cruel and shocking abuse shared her experience at the sentencing hearing for a B.C. woman who pleaded guilty to human trafficking.

Warning: This story contains disturbing details

A victim of a British Columbia sex trafficker says she will “never forgive” the woman who manipulated, sexually exploited and assaulted her over the course of a year.

“The physical injuries have mostly healed, but the psychological trauma inflicted will take a lifetime to work through,” said the victim’s impact statement.

Jennifer Stephens, 31, pleaded guilty last year to multiple charges, including assault causing bodily harm, unlawful confinement, sexual assault with a weapon and several other offences related to sex trafficking of a person under 18.

Crown lawyer Catherine Rose read the impact statement to a B.C. Supreme Court judge in New Westminster on Tuesday.

“I didn’t have a voice while I was being beaten and screamed at, but this is my voice now,” the statement said.

“You laughed and thought it was funny when I was beaten. I’m the one laughing now.”

The prosecution has asked for a 13-year prison sentence for Stephens, who the court heard yesterday inflicted violent beatings on her victims and boasted of a client list of 500 people that she refused to sell to other “pimps.”

Stephens’ lawyer Dale Melville told the court Tuesday that the defence’s position was that a total of seven years minus time served is an appropriate sentence.

The impact statement said the victim, who can’t be named, said she was treated like she “wasn’t even human.” She said she is still terrorized by “nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety and depression.”

“I never fought back because you destroyed who I was as a person. Everything that was good about me, you slowly took away day by day, beating by beating, torture by torture.”

She described how Stephens befriended her and eventually tricked her into being exploited. She said she slowly became accustomed to being beaten, saying the less she fought, “the faster it would be over with.”

“You had me under your psychological and physical control until the day I escaped. It wasn’t until I was out from under your control that everything came to light.”

She said eventually, the feelings she suppressed “came at me like I was hit by a semi truck.”

“You treated me like I was nothing but a body to own and feed when we got bored or wanted to have fun, all so you could make some money off me.”

Another victim, who suffered a concussion, severe bruising and cuts around her body and her face after she was assaulted for several hours in July 2023, also had her victim impact statement read to the court on Tuesday.

The statement said her face “was unrecognizable for months” after she was assaulted by Stephens and she still suffers severe panic and anxiety attacks and nightmares that she said feel so real, she can’t tell if she’s “awake or sleeping.”

Police in Langley, B.C., started investigating the case in February 2023, beginning with a phone number that was linked to a 13-year-old girl who had been trafficked in Alberta and Kelowna, B.C.

An agreed statement of facts read out to the court on Monday outlined Stephens’ violent abuse of the victims.

It said Langley RCMP received a call from a gas station attendant on March 7, 2023, who reported a badly injured and bloody woman.

That woman told police she had been confined inside hotel rooms and assaulted by Stephens and a man over the course of four to five hours, the court heard.

The statement said Stephens met the woman, who was a sex worker, in 2021. The next year, Stephens lured the victim into believing she was a man and began a romantic relationship through texts.

More than 3,700 messages were exchanged and the victim sent money to the person she believed was her romantic partner.

Between March 2022 and March 2023, the woman sent nearly $63,000 to bank accounts controlled by Stephens.

“Ms. Stephens engaged in a prolonged campaign of exploitation and manipulation of (the woman), all done for her personal gain,” Rose told the judge on Tuesday.

The agreed statement of facts says the 13-year-old victim had also been advertised on LeoList, an online escort platform. Rose told the court Tuesday that the girl “worked” for Stephens for a total of three weeks.

“This was not an equal business partnership,” Rose said. “Ms. Stephens asserted significant control of this child.”

On Tuesday, Rose noted that Stephens had accepted responsibility by entering guilty pleas instead of engaging in what would have been a lengthy and complex trial, and had agreed to the detailed agreed statement of facts.

But, Rose said, that needs to be viewed in consideration with a pre-sentence report where she “provided alternative versions or minimized her role” in the crimes.

Rose said Stephens had no adult record, but said that should also be “somewhat tempered” by the fact she had omitted telling the pre-sentence author that she had engaged in criminal activity after being released from custody.

The prosecutor had earlier told the court that despite her initial arrest in March 2023, “Stephens continued to try and recruit other vulnerable women to work for service escorts.”

Melville told the judge on Tuesday that he takes a slightly different view of his client’s role in the crimes.

“She has admitted a wide variety of facts that are morally reprehensible. They’re terrible offences, sexual offences against children, but she’s taken responsibility for all of them,” he said of Stephens.

He said his client suffers from intermittent explosive disorder or borderline personality disorder as well as substance-use disorders involving stimulants and alcohol. He said she has been sober while in custody.

Melville said she has also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had a history of self-harm and suicidal behaviour.

He said the defence understood she will need “intensive monitoring,” support and targeted interventions to help facilitate rehabilitation.

Melville also argued that his client’s “sexual risk level is low.”

“These crimes involved sex, but sex wasn’t the purpose or the motive behind which she was doing it,” he said.

Videos played for the court on Monday showed some of the violence inflicted on the victims, including a man being pistol-whipped by Stephens, a female victim being whipped by a curtain rod and another showing a man being sexually assaulted.

Other videos included a topless woman being forced to eat dog food, and Stephens and her accomplice assaulting a woman in a bathtub, including stomping on her head and pouring bleach over her.

On Tuesday, Rose said the assaults against the woman Stephens manipulated for more than a year were “humiliating and an affront to (her) dignity.”

The videos were distributed, the prosecutor said, and “we don’t know where they are anymore. That’s out there forever.”

Stephens’ accomplice Michael Giroux pleaded guilty to four charges in Surrey provincial court last year, including unlawful confinement, assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.

Stephens’ sentencing hearing is scheduled to continue Wednesday.

If you or someone you know is struggling with sexual assault or trauma, the following resources are available to support people in crisis:

• Call 911 if you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety.
• The Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres' website has a comprehensive list of sexual assault centres in Canada that offer information, advocacy and counselling.
• The Ending Violence Association of Canada‘s website has links to helplines, support services and locations across Canada that offer sexual assault kits.
• Indian Residential School Survivors Society crisis lines: [phone] or [phone] (24/7)
• Toronto Rape Crisis Centre crisis line: [phone] (24/7)
• Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: [phone] (24/7)
• Trans Lifeline: [phone]
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 988 (24/7)
• Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre for current and former Canadian Armed Forces members: [phone]
• Read about your rights as a victim on the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime website.

This report by Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press, was first published June 9, 2026.