Hammonds Plains man guilty of sex trafficking teens gets 8 years

A Hammonds Plains, N.S. man convicted of sex trafficking involving 15-year-olds has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Leeanthon Oliver pleaded guilty Sept. 5 to making and possessing child pornography, receiving benefit from human trafficking, sexual assault, sexual interference and trafficking persons under the age of 18.

"I'm sincerely sorry for the victims and their families, as well as I hope today brings some sort of closure for them, and at the same time I accept full responsibility for my actions," Oliver told the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.

"Last but not least, I'd like to apologize to whoever else was affected by this situation. With that being said, I can honestly say that this was an isolated incident. It will never happen again."

In addition to the prison time, Oliver must also submit a DNA sample. Oliver has just under six years left in his sentence because he has already served 840 days.

Agreed statement of facts

In the agreed statement of facts, Oliver said he met one of the girls through the picture-posting app SnapChat Jan. 20, 2017. Even though he was 33 at the time, he claimed to be 18 in his SnapChat profile.

The two chatted for about a month and during that time, Oliver sent the girl flattering messages and told her that he loved her. He then asked her to send a "sexy photo." The girl sent him a photo of herself in bed and he sent her a picture of his penis.

Oliver made plans to meet the girl in February, 2017. She was picked up at the McDonald's restaurant in New Glasgow and taken to Hammonds Plains, N.S.

Then, in the early morning hours of the next day, the girl was brought to a hotel in Halifax where she was forced to have sex with a man. She was given $440, but gave a portion of that money to Oliver.

Oliver and the girl went back to Hammonds Plains. She was able to text a friend that she was locked in a basement and was not able to get away. Her friend called police and the girl was able to sneak out of the house at 2 a.m.

Police found the girl visibly upset, crying and shaken. 

Oliver was arrested Feb. 23, 2017. He was positively identified in a photo line up. Video surveillance was taken from the hotel showing the girl leaving the back of a black SUV with a person seated in the front passenger seat.

Another girl

In the agreed statement of facts, another girl met Oliver a month before, in January, 2017. He claimed he was 23. He eventually offered to pay for her take a bus to meet him in Halifax.

Oliver picked the girl up at a Bedford, N.S. mall and took her to a residence on Hammonds Plains.

When they got to the home, there were a couple of adult friends there and they were all drinking alcohol.

Oliver told the girl he would pay her to "service" his friends in the bathroom. At first, she said no but later agreed to perform oral sex on two of his friends, one at time, in the bathroom.

The girl was at the home for several days. She was directed to 10 calls over five days. She was driven to different locations and apartments.

She received between $75 and $150 per call. She would give Oliver money immediately after each call and Oliver would get mad if she didn't give him the money. 

The girl eventually returned to New Glasgow, but they began talking again a few weeks later. 

Oliver sent a man to pick the girl up in New Glasgow and take her back to the Hammonds Plains home. The girl had sex with Oliver. She later told police she thought Oliver was 23 and was upset to learn he was 32.

The girl texted her aunt to come get her. The girl ran out of the house when she knew her aunt was close.

A troubled life

In Oliver's statement to the court, he said he was "enthralled by money, women, and a fast life associated with it due to the lack of positive male influences in my life."

By the time he was 14, Oliver said he was selling drugs and sleeping around "just like my father who abandoned me for crack cocaine addiction at a very young age."

"Being a man was only trial and error in my neighbourhood," Oliver said. "So I looked to hustlers, pimps, crack addicts and prostitutes for guidance because that was always around me given the fact growing up in central Halifax.

By the time he was 15, Oliver said he managed to get his life back on track. But he said his life was derailed once again after his brother was murdered in 2000.

"I managed to get through a year and a half of school, then dropped out due to losing my brother and became very depressed and fell back into old habits that I once was accustomed to," Oliver said.

Oliver said he's been the victim of sexual assault .

"I'm ashamed to say while I was abused as a child, I became an abuser," he said. "I became the very thing that I hated."