Police will tell you it's all in a day's work, but when that work rescues young girls from human trafficking, it's worth an honor. Two Ottawa officers have been awarded for their role in busting up a teenaged pimp ring in the city. Ottawa detectives Carolyn Botting and Kelly Lyle have lived and breathed the case since the first young victim came forward in the spring of 2012. Working 60 hour weeks, they ultimately uncovered 9 victims, some as young as 13, who had been dragged, drugged or beaten into performing sex acts with men.
“We developed close bonds with these girls,” says Detective Lyle of the victims.
Detective Botting worked this heartbreaking case at a time when she was about to give birth to her first child.
"I needed to be there for their families,” says Botting, “for justice and for Kelly, my partner, so I would have worked right up until the very end no matter what.”
That "end" was jail time for two of the accused. The ringleader has yet to be sentenced on 27 charges. It was a ground-breaking case for Canada; the first time young offenders had been convicted under the country’s Human Trafficking Law. The detectives won an award for their work at a ceremony this past weekend for Ontario Women in Law Enforcement.
Staff-Sergeant Angela McDade heads up the Ottawa Police Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section, “When you look at the amount of work that went into this type of investigation and the vulnerability of these victims, I can see why they were successful in winning this award.”
After 8 years working in human trafficking, not much shocks these detectives but this award did.
“I didn't think we had any chance of winning at all,” says Botting, “Really, we were just doing our jobs.”
The officers still keep in touch with some of the victims and still think about the three young girls behind it all.
“Well, they're kids too,” says Lyle, “I hope they've learned from their mistakes.”
