A convicted human trafficker has been sent to prison for dealing in a deadly opioid.
Sean Leadston, 48, of London was sentenced to four years in prison for trafficking in three substances, including carfentinal, an opioid more powerful than fentanyl.
Leadston was charged on March 16, 2019 after drugs were discovered in a car parked at a London hotel. Along with about four grams of carfentinal, police found amounts of methamphetamine and hydromorphone.
Leadston was convicted after a trial last fall. His sentencing was delayed while he dealt with human trafficking charges involving a woman he recruited through social media in late 2017.
In February 2018, 13 months before he was charged with the drug offences, Leadston was seriously burned in a car fire in downtown London.
William McDonald, 33, went on trial earlier this year after pleading not guilty to aggravated assault, sexual assault, choking and arson. He is accused of assaulting the woman Leadston recruited, then throwing gasoline and setting Leadston’s car on fire while he and Leadston were inside of the vehicle.
His case is ongoing and returns for Crown and defence submissions on Sept. 8.
But all of those circumstances pushed the woman to quit the sex trade and go to the police about Leadston.
Leadston pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges and was sentenced on July 4 to two years, or time served, part of a joint submission from the Crown and the defence that applied all of Leadston’s pre-sentencing custody to his term.
The human trafficking sentencing proposal was accepted by Superior Court Justice Kelly Tranquilli after the Crown and the defence assured her Leadston was facing a four-year prison sentence on the drug charges. The drug sentence was a joint submission from defence lawyer Rob Kitto and federal drug prosecutor Trevor Pellerine and was accepted by Tranquilli this week.
Leadston has a previous drug conviction in 2017 for trafficking in methamphetamine, as well as a conviction at the same time for possessing of a stun gun without a licence.
The charges stemmed from an intense police investigation in 2015 of a potential human trafficking probe involving a van that ferried teenagers to area motels to make money as sex workers. Leadston, who owned a carpet-cleaning business, had a van, but the Crown said several of the complainants couldn’t be located at the time of Leadston’s guilty pleas.
However, the agreed statement of facts said Leadston had been under police surveillance and was seen many times making short visits to various London hotels. Two witnesses had seen him traffic in drugs.
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