LONDON, ONTARIO - Two London residents are facing charges of human trafficking, the first time police in the city have laid that charge.
Thirty-six-year-old Steven McDonald and 31-year-old Kristen MacLean are charged with trafficking in persons by exercising control, procuring illicit sexual intercourse, exercising control of a person for prostitution and living on the avails of prostitution.
Const. Ken Steeves says the victim is a woman in her late twenties from London who had met the accused early this year.
McDonald is also charged with attempting or procuring a person to be a prostitute, two counts of sexual assault and giving an intoxicating substance to a person for sex.
Steeves says human trafficking can't be confused with human smuggling.
While human trafficking involves moving people for the purposes of exploitation, human smuggling is a form of illegal migration when someone is transported across an international border, usually in exchange for a sum of money.
The two accused are still in police custody.
Steeves says he can't release more details on the case because the investigation in ongoing.
