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.