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VANCOUVER - A young Chinese woman allegedly forced into prostitution by the operator of a Kingsway massage parlour wept bitterly Wednesday when she remembered the day in 2002 when she first realized she had been tricked into a life of sexual slavery.The woman, whose identity is protected by court order, told Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Malcolm MacLean that she had been brought to Canada by Michael (Wai Chi) Ng, who promised her a job as a waitress in his supposed seven-storey restaurant.
She came in on false papers supplied by Ng after he convinced her to come to Canada to work for him, the woman said through an interpreter.
Instead of a waitress job she was taken to a Ng's one-storey massage parlour at 2263 Kingsway and told she was expected to pay him $11,000 a month by prostituting herself.
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Ng is the first person in Canada to be charged with human trafficking and is facing 22 counts that include human smuggling, prostitution offences and offences against the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
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Eventually she would be taken back to China by Ng in December 2003 as part of a plan to bring someone into Canada through a phony marriage.
The woman worked in the massage parlour seven days a week from 11 a.m., sometimes until 2 a.m. the next morning in order to meet Ng's financial demands.
"In one year and five months I make him well over $100,000 dollars [in prostitution earnings] plus the $50-dollar-an hour he charged customers for a massage," she said.
Ng gave her a cheque for $1,500 a month and she was expected to sleep in the massage parlour or in his house, she said.
In the months she didn't make $11,000, she was expected to make up the shortfall from her salary.
During the time she was in the massage parlour she was raped and injured by some customers, she testified.