One-time Ponoka resident Christopher Becks, 39, has been sentenced to five-and-a-half years for sex-trafficking charges and awaits a second trial in the fall.
Becks was facing multiple charges that were being addressed in two separate court cases.
A trial had been set for May 12 to 16, 2025, in Edmonton for the first set of offences that allegedly occurred between Oct. 1 and Oct. 14, 2022, however, Becks pleaded guilty to three of the six charges on Sept. 11, 2024.
Becks was sentenced on March 5, 2025, for trafficking in persons, sexual assault, and threatening to cause death or bodily harm.
The counts of advertising for sexual services, receiving material benefits from the trafficking of persons and overcoming resistance to commit and offence, were withdrawn.
Becks was sentenced to a total of 2,007 days incarceration minus 702 days served in pre-trial custody, leaving 1,305 days to be served.
He was also given a firearms prohibition and ordered to register on a sex offender registry.
He is still facing charges of sexual assault and two counts of failure to comply with release conditions for offences alleged to have occurred between Sept. 19 and Oct. 13, 2023, in Ponoka.
A jury trial for those charges is scheduled for Sept. 8 to 12 in Wetaskiwin.
Becks was out on bail with strict conditions when the second set of offences allegedly occurred.
Becks was arrested in December, 2022, after a search warrant was executed at a home in Edmonton following reports that someone was targeting vulnerable women.
At the time, Staff Sgt. Christopher Hayes with ALERT’s human trafficking section said they believed Becks had actively searched out vulnerable women struggling with addiction.
“He would lure these women to hotels by offering drugs, food and a place to stay, then exploit them and force them into the sex trade, even taking them to other areas of the province," Hayes said.
RCMP believed over a dozen women had possibly been victimized.
