A Prince George woman has filed a lawsuit against the provincial government in which she alleges the Ministry of Children and Family Services failed to come to her aid when she was coerced into prostitution as a 15-year-old girl.
According to a notice of claim filed this week, in December 1999, the ministry moved her from a group home for teenagers to a women's shelter in Prince George where there was no supervision for teenagers, despite the minister being "well aware of this fact."
While there, she was connected to criminals who operated a prostitution enterprise out of a home on Spruce Street and through a combination drugs, alcohol and "various means of coercion, violence and threats" she was forced into "a life of prostitution and drug use."
When the then teenage girl let ministry employees know of her situation and asked them to remove her from the home, they failed to do so, according to the claim, adding that her circumstances were communicated to the employees on multiple occasions.
The woman is claiming breaches of care and fiduciary duty and that, as a result of the ministry's failure to act upon her complaints, she "fell into a devastating life of addiction, violence and prostitution" until she was in her early 20s. After a period of incarceration, she was able to recover from that lifestyle and is no longer consuming drugs or alcohol.
The criminals, meanwhile, were "ultimately charged and convicted of various criminal offences, including living off the avails of prostitution."
However, she has suffered fallout, according to the claim.
Her education was disrupted because she had ceased going to school at the time and so has suffered "diminished employment capacity and impaired social development."
She will also continue to undergo therapy, counselling and other treatment and rehabilitation" and will continue to incur expenses on both an ongoing and crisis basis.
She is seeking both general and special damages.
The Citizen has opted against publishing her name and current vocation.
The notice was filed this week in Prince George registry of the B.C. Supreme Court. The allegations have not been tested in court and the defendant has not yet filed a response.
