Pimp’s mom gets house arrest for facilitating sex trafficking

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She referred to one of the women her son was sex trafficking as “hired help” and “a hooker.”

Other victims brought into the scheme were referred to as a “new family member.” She booked hotel rooms and drove them to meet clients.

All of this was to aid and shield her son, while at the same time reap the benefits of his extensive human trafficking scheme.

Shelley Hawke, 56, mother of convicted sex trafficker Jordan Hawke, pleaded guilty at an earlier date to one count of obtaining material benefit from the sale of sexual services between Sept. 1, 2018, and March 31, 2020.

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On Friday, she was dealt a two-year-less-a-day conditional sentence, with eight days subtracted for pre-plea custody. For the first 16 months, she will be under house arrest and ordered to wear an electronic GPS monitor on her ankle.

Hawke will be under a curfew for the final six months, followed by two years of probation. Superior Court Justice Michael Carnegie ordered she donate $250 to an organization that helps victims of intimate partner violence and human trafficking.

Hawke is familiar with moving money. Her role in her son’s criminal activity included funnelling thousands of dollars through bank accounts and cryptocurrency and receiving some lucrative benefits such as dining, gifts, designer goods and a new vehicle.

She assisted her son’s illegal enterprise by booking hotel rooms and driving young women to meet with clients. She had discussions with him about buying property with the proceeds

“While she professes ignorance about any coercive or exploitative relationships, she acknowledges she knew her son was profitably involved in this prostitution for which she was a material beneficiary,” Carnegie said.

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“She claims she mistakenly believed that prostitution was legal,” he noted, a contention he called “absurd.”

Her 32-year-old son pleaded guilty earlier this year to 10 sex trafficking related charges for recruiting and trafficking seven women in several Ontario cities, including London, Sudbury, Windsor, Mississauga, Orillia, Burlington, Brantford, Woodstock, Waterloo and Guelph. Many of the women believed they were in an intimate relationship with Jordan Hawke, before he encouraged them to become paid escorts and split the money with him.

The Crown is seeking a 23-year prison term for Jordan Hawke, which, if imposed, would be one of the longest human trafficking sentences handed down in the country. He is waiting to be sentenced.

Carnegie already has sentenced Joel Ramocan, 32, a bit player in the scheme, to 30 months in prison.

Shelley Hawke, Carnegie said, helped her son and “meaningfully enabled (him)… by shielding him from exposure by using her own bank accounts, booking hotel accommodations and often driving the victims to various hotels to facilitate the sale of sexual services.”

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Carnegie noted the illegal scheme was very lucrative for her son and in turn, for her.

When police had an arrest warrant for her son in July 2020, Shelley Hawke falsely denied knowing where he was. Family members, including his mother, helped hide him until Sept. 8, 2021, when police saw him and his mother leaving her Cambridge home.

She was arrested at the same time as her son and spent five days in jail which she found traumatizing, before she was released on bail. Carnegie noted she had 16 years of steady work as a dietary aide at a nursing home, but lost her job once she was charged.

Carnegie noted the elder Hawke has no criminal record. She has been married twice and has a history of alcohol abuse but has been loyal to counselling and sober for many months. However, she is no longer able to get a bank account because of her criminal activities with her son.

Also pointed out was her candid comments to the author of her pre-sentence report, which said she felt “a lot of guilt” and should have asked her son more questions. She said she believed the women were in the scheme by their own choice and “never saw the victims in a bad way.”

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“She did not believe her son was doing anything illegal and never expected to be charged as a result of his actions,” Carnegie said.

But the trafficked victims understood what was happening. One noted in their statements that Shelley Hawke did nothing to help them. One referred to her as “an awful woman” and was confident she knew exactly what was going on.

Carnegie said statistics show human trafficking and prostitution is increasing, with Ontario and Nova Scotia have the highest police-reported rates of human trafficking since 2013, but much more remains unreported.

“What was once a dirty secret has become a glaring public eyesore,” he said, and is of particular concern in London and along the Highway 401 corridor.

The Crown had asked for a two-year jail sentence, while defence lawyer Sharon Jeethan had argued for a two-year conditional sentence with probation.

Carnegie decided a conditional sentence was possible because Shelley Hawke didn’t have a criminal record and posed little threat to the community .

But the conditional sentence needed to be lengthy because she had “turned a blind eye” to how young and vulnerable the victims were.

The scheme was exploitative and “profiting from this degradation is particularly reprehensible,” Carnegie said.

jsims@postmedia.com

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