A 26-year-old B.C. man once wanted on a Canada-wide warrant has been sentenced to six years for the human trafficking of a teen girl.
Meaz Nour-Eldin pleaded guilty to one count of human trafficking of a person under the age of 18 in October 2022, according to Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick’s recently posted Dec. 21, 2023 decision. The human trafficking offence took place over a two-month period, from Dec. 23, 2018 to Feb. 24, 2019.
In the fall of 2018, 15-year-old teen, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, had begun to withdraw from her family and school. Eventually she stopped attending school altogether and ran away from home. In December of 2018, she was invited to a party by a 14-year-old where she met then-21-year-old Nour-Eldin.
The teen was recruited to act as a decoy to rob “Johns” – slang for clients of sex workers – while pretending to offer sexual services. She was involved in various robberies, including one at knifepoint, but was returned to her home after that incident.
She ran away again within days and began working for Nour-Eldin, eventually agreeing to a request that she engage in sex work.
Fitzpatrick said the teen became heavily involved in sex work while under the control of Nour-Eldin and his associates. She was mistreated by the men through violence or the threat of violence at times.
The men controlled her movements to a degree, provided her with drugs and alcohol and required her to work for two months, seeing a number of clients. During that time, she was required to provide sex services she did not wish to, and was exposed to health risks as she wasn’t provided condoms. She was also required to have sex with Nour-Eldin, his associates and their friends.
The teen was also trafficked across the border into Alberta.
She was returned home once again, but again ran away to work for Nour-Eldin. She left shortly after and contacted police a year later in February 2020.
In her victim impact statement, the teen told the court she’s devastated by the exploitation and the fact that her youth and innocence was stolen from her. She added that she feels her ability to form intimate relationships has been impaired, possibly permanently.
Nour-Eldin’s ‘life of crime’
Nour-Eldin was born in Libya in 1997 to a conservative Muslim family, Fitzpatrick’s decision notes. The family moved first to Saskatchewan when he was six, and then to B.C. where he grew up and graduated from a Surrey high school in 2015.
He was first introduced to drugs in his last year of school, before attending courses at BCIT. He was then reintroduced to drugs, and Fitzpatrick said the “escalating drug use then led to crime to feed his habit.”
His adult criminal record began in 2015, and of his five convictions, two involve violent offences.
In March of 2020, Nour-Eldin was the subject of a Canada-wide warrant for kidnapping, with a $50,000-reward for information leading to his capture. He was also wanted on provincial warrants in B.C., Alberta and Ontario related to drug trafficking, human trafficking and sexual assault.
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The kidnapping charges have not yet been resolved, the decision adds.
Fitzpatrick said Nour-Eldin’s “life of crime has impacted others in his life. He is estranged from his brothers. He is estranged from his community generally.” He also has a seven-year-old child from an ex-girlfriend.
Nour-Eldin’s mother provided a letter of support for her son that Fitzpatrick said included “glowing references to Mr. Nour-Eldin as being ‘responsible, compassionate and hardworking,’ (which) is very much belied by other aspects of his life.”
Fitzpatrick added that Nour-Eldin has “expressed remorse which I take to be genuine on his part,” and has “begun to make strides while incarcerated toward leading a productive life that is not focussed on criminality.”
Nour-Eldin was also sentenced to 16 months for possession for the purpose of trafficking, after he was convicted on July 18, 2022 for three counts of possessing heroin and fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine from a 2017 incident in West Vancouver.