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B.C. woman sentenced to 13 years for human sex trafficking, including a previously trafficked 13-year-old

B.C. woman sentenced to 13 years for human sex trafficking, including a previously trafficked 13-year-old

Jennifer Lynn Stephens was sentenced to 13 years in prison in a human sex trafficking case involving multiple victims, including a 13-year-old girl.

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Jennifer Lynn Stephens was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Thursday in connection with a human sex trafficking case involving multiple victims in Langley.

Stephens, a woman charged in 2023 with 14 offences, was sentenced after pleading guilty in January 2025 to 17 charges in the human sex trafficking investigation.

Police said the victims included several adults and a 13-year-old girl who had already been the victim of sex trafficking, and none of the victims can be identified under a publication ban.

Langley RCMP said officers received a 911 call on March 7, 2023 from a gas station near a hotel in the Township of Langley, near 204 Street and 88 Avenue.

The gas station attendant told police an injured, distressed woman had walked in and asked to call police, and officers were then directed to a nearby hotel while providing first aid.

Crown prosecutors sought the 13-year prison term, and with credit for time served, Stephens will spend another eight years behind bars.

Court material played in June showed Stephens and a man in an assault involving a sex worker, including footage in which the victim’s head was shown in a toilet and she was hit during an attack that lasted four to five hours before the victim was able to get to the gas station.

Human trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation or harbouring of persons, or the control of their movements, for exploitation, police said, noting victims are typically trafficked for sexual exploitation or forced labour, and that in this case it was alleged the victims were trafficked for sexual exploitation.

After sentencing, one victim said she feels “like a weight has been lifted,” and added: “I’m happy with it… she got the most time that she would have gotten, which is all that I could have asked for.” She said there are still days when she experiences anxiety and PTSD, but she hopes Stephens uses the time in jail to heal and better herself.

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