After a series of human trafficking arrests involving the same online classifieds site, a Toronto sex worker says she worries a crackdown on internet sex ads could make her more vulnerable.Toronto police have charged eight GTA residents with dozens of charges in four separate cases this year involving the website LeoList.com. In one, police say a 17-year-old schoolgirl was taken to a series of GTA motels by a man with a gun and forced to sell her body to strangers.The latest bust was announced last week, after police say a man physically assaulted a 28-year-old woman several times, including one attack that left her with broken ribs. In all four cases, alleged pimps forced women to place sex ads on LeoList.com and took all of their earnings.In one, an alleged pimp even threatened a sex worker’s pet, police said.None of that violence surprises Dave Perry, a Toronto private investigator who was the detective in charge of the Toronto police’s old Juvenile Task Force for eight years in the 1980s and 1990s.“I can tell you stories that will fill your head,” Perry said.But the Toronto sex worker, whom the Star is not naming because she fears for her safety, said she worries a sweeping crackdown against human trafficking on the internet could push independent adult sex workers underground.The 30-year-old sex worker, whose real name is known by the Star, is a member of Butterfly, an Asian and migrant sex workers support network. She said she has been a sex worker in Toronto for two years.She said sex workers use the internet to vet their potential clients and even ask for references.“They can screen,” she said. “They can increase their safety.”Toronto police declined to comment on LeoList.com. The Star attempted to contact the website by email and at a toll-free phone number listed on the site’s contacts page, but received no response. LeoList.com’s terms of use ask users to immediately report suspected human tr ...
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