An Ontario judge has sentenced a 47-year-old man who admitted to procuring an 18-year-old woman for prostitution and profiting from her sex work to just one additional day in custody, after giving him enhanced credit for time already served in pre-trial detention.

In a July 17 decision, Justice Michael Derstine of the Ontario Superior Court accepted guilty pleas from Hamed Khogyani to procuring a woman to offer sexual services between April 2015 and March 2018 and obtaining a material benefit from those offences.

According to the court, Khogyani met the woman when she was 18 years old and struggling with drug addiction. The judge found he exploited her youth and vulnerability, convincing her to work in the sex trade while driving her to hotels, supplying her with drugs, taking photographs for sex trade advertisements, and collecting at least $20,000 she earned.

The victim later became pregnant with his child, and the court heard he continued persuading her to sell sexual services during her pregnancy and after the child's birth, telling her the family needed the money.

The victim described years of lasting psychological harm in her impact statement, telling the court Khogyani's manipulation destroyed her confidence, worsened her addiction, and continues to affect both her and their daughter. She urged the court to impose a sentence reflecting the lifelong consequences of his conduct.

The Crown sought a penitentiary sentence of three to four years, less credit for time served. The defence argued Khogyani had already served sufficient time through pre-trial custody and restrictive bail conditions.

Justice Derstine sided with the defence, citing several mitigating factors, including Khogyani's role as the primary caregiver for his nine-year-old daughter since 2020, his assistance caring for his elderly parents, his guilty plea, lack of a prior criminal record, and what the judge described as genuine remorse. The court also gave mitigation for harsh conditions at the Maplehurst Detention Centre, including lockdowns and triple-bunking.

While Justice Derstine rejected the defence's suggestion that the intimate relationship between Khogyani and the victim reduced the seriousness of the offences, he also noted there was no evidence of physical violence or unlawful confinement. The judge emphasized that "persuasion, even if morally odious, is not the same as confinement," though he treated persuading the victim to continue prostituting herself while pregnant as an aggravating factor.

Concluding that further incarceration was unnecessary to achieve the purposes of sentencing, Justice Derstine imposed a sentence of one additional day in custody.

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