A B.C. Supreme Court judge has found a Surrey pair guilty of unlawful confinement after they refused to let a quadriplegic man leave their house for nearly 24 hours on New Year’s Eve, 2017.
Jacqueline Lee Peintinger was working as an escort in Surrey at the time, advertising her services under the name ‘Nina’.
According to court documents, a would-be client, identified only as A.B., wanted to hire her and a friend — but, diagnosed with cerebral palsy from a young age and using a motorized wheelchair, he got to the house to see that there was no ramp for him to get in.
By this time, he also realized Peintinger didn’t look like the photos she had posted online, and decided he’d rather leave. But Peintinger started yelling at him, documents revealed, saying she’d passed up a lot of clients for him that night. Fearful for his safety, A.B. stayed.
Peintinger’s partner, Jeremy Sean Eddy, carried A.B. up the steps with a friend, court reports continued, leaving the wheelchair outside. Eddy placed him on the bed, face-up, where he was more or less immobilized.
That’s when Peintinger started demanding $1,800 in pre-payment from the victim. Issues with the wifi meant an electronic payment transfer wouldn’t go through. Multiple attempts to make the transfer were unsuccessful, according to court documents.
The pair refused to let him go, and he was stuck, immobilized, on the bed.
Eventually, they let A.B. call his father to give him the money. He told A.B.’s sister — who happens to be a police officer — what was going on, and she alerted Surrey RCMP, who were able to rescue the victim.
The B.C. Supreme Court found Peintinger and Eddy guilty of unlawful confinement, but they were acquitted of a host of other charges including extortion, robbery, threatening, and common assault.
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