Gatineau police arrested Laura Emerson, Gordon Kingsburry,Police said they are associates of the Ledbury-Banff Crips and the Ritchie Street Gang

Three teenaged Ottawa girls, allegedly forced into prostitution by a Gatineau couple, could be just the tip of the iceberg of a local prostitution ring muscled by street gangs preying on young girls. Gatineau police believe there are more victims on both sides of the river being forced to have sex daily with paying customers who have a hankering for underage girls. Police said one girl was held captive for a year, the other two for five to six months and that they were recruited around downtown shelters in Ottawa. Before they knew what was happening, the girls were turning tricks, forced to smoke crack and beaten if they didn’t comply. Police didn’t learn of the alleged prostitution ring until one of the girls tried to escape from a Hull high-rise on July 25. They say she didn’t make it far as one of the suspects grabbed her and pulled her back inside a second-floor apartment at 232 Alexandre-Tache Blvd. Yesterday, a tiny pink teddy bear hung from the handle of the glass sliding door on the patio. The girl told police she was beaten and forced to have sex with a male client who paid for her. A tenant witnessed what happened and called police. Two days later, Gatineau police arrested Laura Emerson, 28, and her boyfriend Gordon Kingsburry, 33.
Police said they are associates of the Ledbury-Banff Crips and the Ritchie Street gang in Ottawa. Soon after the arrests, police discovered the second girl who had also been held against her will for about six months. Police said she had been tied up for about a week-and-a-half. Yesterday, police said the third girl had been located and she endured a year in captivity. Street gangs recruit the vulnerable girls, typically runaways looking for money and attention, according to Ottawa police sources. Sometimes the girls think they’re going to a party, only to discover there isn’t one. Often, the nightmare doesn’t end until they escape, police rescue them or they get too old for clients’ tastes. Once they reach a certain age, typically after 20, the girls are released, but by then they’re hooked on drugs and end up on streets like Lafontaine Ave. in Vanier, a common stroll for strung-out older prostitutes looking for their next hit of crack.Some are kept on by gangs to recruit new young girls. One of the girls said she was “recruited” near a young women’s shelter on Nelson St. in Sandy Hill. A 17-year-old girl who lives in the shelter said yesterday that five to six months ago her roommate vanished one day, leaving all her possessions behind. Emerson and Kingsburry are being held in custody on a number of charges including profiting from the proceeds of prostitution, forcible confinement, kidnapping and sexual assault.