A man who pleaded guilty to beating an 18-year-old sex-trade worker with a field-hockey stick and living on the proceeds of a 14-year-old's prostitution was ordered in court today to undergo a psychiatric assessment.
Tyrel Kurt Henwood, 22, was initially charged with luring a teenage girl into prostitution, Internet luring, human trafficking and more in connection with the 14-year-old, who previously lived with her mother in a city on the mainland.
Those charges were dropped when Henwood pleaded guilty to assault, living on the avails of prostitution and making or publishing child pornography.
Judge Ernie Quantz placed a publication ban on the girl's name or any information on her place of residence, Internet identification known as "handles," or anything else that might identify her.
Defence counsel Catherine Tyhurst argued Henwood's behaviour in custody since his Nov. 13, 2008, arrest has been exemplary and he is remorseful for the two separate incidents.
Henwood was charged with assault, along with Ryan Hall, 27, on Oct. 7 when the two men picked up an 18-year-old prostitute in the Rock Bay area with the intent to rob her. When they were unable to get money, Henwood beat the woman severely with a field-hockey stick, using blows that the Crown described as life-threatening. The prostitute has suffered lasting damage to one hand.
In the charges connected to the 14-year-old girl, who moved to Victoria from a mainland city, Tyhurst argued the girl was complicit in the prostitution and the two lived together as boyfriend and girlfriend.
The two met through an online social-networking website.
Crown counsel, however, argued that Henwood held the girl in an emotionally exploitive and manipulative relationship, presenting documentation from their online messages to support his argument that Henwood pressured the girl to work in the sex trade and arranged for funds from that activity to be wired to him through Money Mart.
After listening to arguments, Quantz decided to order a psychiatric assessment. Results and sentencing are expected in about a month.
Henwood's family sat in court, sometimes quietly sobbing through the proceedings. His mother, Veronica Henwood, said she is encouraged by the psychiatric-assessment order. "If that is what it takes for the judge to know my son is not a threat to society, then it's a good thing."
