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A trial on pimping-related charges did not go ahead in Halifax provincial court this week after the four accused – all members of the same Dartmouth family – agreed to enter guilty pleas.

Leslie Burton Gray, 27, pleaded guilty Tuesday to four charges of human trafficking, each involving a different young woman.

His mother, Robin Elizabeth Gray, 59, admitted guilt on three counts of receiving financial benefit from human trafficking.

Her daughter, Laura Mona Gray, 28, pleaded guilty to assault and possession of more than $5,000 worth of property obtained by the commission of an indictable offence.

Another sibling, Justin Jurrell Gray, 26, was expected to plead guilty to human trafficking and other charges Tuesday, but his matters were adjourned until later in the week because his lawyer was ill.

The offences were committed by the Grays in Halifax, Dartmouth and Bedford between January 2014 and March 2019.

All four individuals will be sentenced by Judge Elizabeth Buckle next week, after victim impact statements are filed with the court.

The trial was supposed to start Monday and sit for two weeks. The allegations involved three complainants – all women in their early 20s who were prepared to testify.

Crown attorney Rob Kennedy, who’s prosecuting the case with Cory Roberts, said the guilty pleas were the result of last-minute negotiations with defence lawyers.

Kennedy said the plea bargains include joint sentencing recommendations.

“We discussed the potential resolution with the three victims, and they were all very relieved they didn’t have to testify in this matter,” the prosecutor said. “It was anticipated that each of them would be testifying for multiple days.”

Kennedy described the complainants as “very vulnerable” and said they were victimized over a period of months “and sometimes years.”

“To save them from testifying at a trial of this nature was a huge benefit,” he said.

Roberts said the Crown was seeking to have two of the victims testify from behind a screen.

One of the human trafficking charges that Leslie Gray pleaded guilty to involves a fourth woman. He was awaiting trial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on charges related to that complainant but re-elected to provincial court Tuesday.

Leslie Gray was found guilty in December in Dartmouth provincial court of receiving material benefit from human trafficking. Sentencing on that charge is scheduled for April.

A fifth member of the family, Andre Jerome Gray, 24, has unrelated sexual assault and pimping-related charges before the courts.

In November 2017, Leslie Gray and Andre Gray pleaded guilty to charges involving a young woman who had been forced into the sex trade. Leslie Gray accepted responsibility for four offences – advertising sexual services, receiving material benefit from prostitution, receiving material benefit from human trafficking and uttering threats – while Andre Gray admitted uttering threats.

Leslie Gray received a sentence of 30 months, less 14 months for remand credit, as well as two years’ probation. Andre Gray was sentenced to 112 days in jail, deemed time served, plus three years’ probation.

In April 2014, Andre Gray was charged with human trafficking, sexual assault and other offences after a 15-year-old girl said she was held against her will in the basement of a home in North Preston. He pleaded guilty to charges of assault and forcible confinement and was sentenced in February 2016 to time served.