A Woman Leaning Into A Car Window In 118 Avenue, Edmonton
A woman leans into the window of a passing car just before getting into it near the infamous 118 Avenue in Edmonton June 3, 2005. Some of the 25 women found murdered since 1975 disappeared while leading high risk lifestyles on the Avenue. Reuters/Dan Riedlhuber DR/NL

A teenage girl, who was 15 when arrested in 2012 for masterminding a prostitution racket, was sentenced to six years and a half in a correctional facility. The young girl was accused of trafficking teenage girls through social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook.

According to an earlier report in October, the Canadian teenager said she was "sorry" for running the prostitution ring. She also said she was going to suffer the consequences for her "vile actions." The teenager has already spent more than three years and a half in pre-sentence custody. She was given credit for the time she served and will spend two more years and 325 days, CBC News reported. The teenage girl, who recruited other teenagers through social networks, was also found to have forced the girls into prostitution.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act imposes three years as a maximum sentence, but the teenager faces a minimum sentence of five years under the adult Criminal Code. She pleaded not guilty during her trial but was found guilty in January. Defence lawyer Doug Baum, former president of the Defence Counsel Association of Ottawa, said it was a "very rare" case. He added such things, though very infrequent, was a "big deal." He said the Youth Criminal Justice Act takes reduced maturity, greater dependency and diminished moral blameworthiness of a youth into account, but a youth contradicts such characteristics at times.

The teenage offender was found guilty of 27 charges including sexual assault, production and possession of child pornography, and human trafficking. Global News reported she was arrested in 2012 after having been charged of drugging, beating and taking nude images of five teenagers, which she then blackmailed into prostitution. According to Justice Diane Lahaie, the teenager run a "sophisticated and well-organized human trafficking enterprise." Lahaie explained the teenager was given adult sentence because a youth sentence would not have been enough to reflect the gravity of the offences she had committed. According to Lahaie, the highly intelligent convict tried to "look good" by expressing her desire of becoming an occupational therapist and tried to trick the court to give her a lesser sentence.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au

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