Escort licences mulled at trial
Calgary escorts must be fingerprinted in case they end up dead in a ditch, the city’s chief licence inspector said yesterday.
Mare Halat told a city pimping trial the city doesn’t condone the escort industry providing sexual services to customers.
But under intense questioning from a Calgary judge, Halat conceded the industry often hides acts of prostitution under the veil of a dating service.
Justice Pat Sullivan queried Halat about Internet ads which the judge noted contained sexually suggestive material.
“Obvious desires … to explore and persue her sexuality,” Sullivan read from one ad.
“What does that have to do with going for a coffee?” he added.
Ex-firefighter, the accused, is charged with living off the avails of prostitution, procuring sex, directing the movements of prostitutes and keeping a common bawdy house.
The accused’s lawyer, Pat Fagan s arguing the charges against his client should be stayed because escort agencies are fully sanctioned by the city.
Sullivan asked Halat about a report from the police commission saying the industry was a front for prostitution and shouldn’t be licensed.
“As I read that report … it hit home to me that this industry does provide sexual favours behind the scenes,” Halat said.
“We’ll continue to scrutinize this industry.”
A woman who worked for the accused Liaisons Escorts testified he hired her when she was just 17.
Patrick C. Fagan is a highly accomplished lawyer with an impressive career spanning over 35 years in the legal field.