Sex worker suing tycoon after bad night of rough sex

A sex-trade worker is suing a Vancouver businessman after their night of debauchery went wrong, a Vancouver newspaper reported.

Kayla Reinfjell said David Ho wouldn’t let her leave his Vancouver mansion after they smoked crack cocaine and had sex from midnight to 4:44 a.m., The Province said.

“The plaintiff has suffered a loss of enjoyment of life and will continue to suffer a loss of enjoyment of life in the future due to the wrongful actions of the defendant,” the claim says, according to the paper.

A criminal case involving the pair has already been settled. Ho, a Chinese-born real estate and airline tycoon, pleaded guilty in a plea deal to unlawful confinement last week. He received one year of probation, a $5,000 fine for weapons possession (although it wasn’t used that night), 45 hours of community service and must enter drug counseling, PostMedia reported.

Court heard that Ho met Reinfjell online late in 2008, and offered to pay her for sex. He picked her up at home, and brought her back to his mansion (surrounded by a moat), but wouldn’t let her leave.

During a struggle, Ho tried to grab her and tore away her pants, shirt and bra as she fell down some stairs. She jumped a fence and broke her ankle. She arrived at a neighbor’s home wearing only her thong.

“Dad, help me, I’m on a bad date,” she said during a phone call presented as evidence, then yelled, “Let me out!” A man’s voice in the background can be heard saying, “What’s wrong?”

Ho is a well-known figure in Vancouver for his wild lifestyle and previous run-ins with police for picking up hookers; however, he calls himself a do-gooder only trying to help the downtrodden. He told a Canadian journalist that when he can’t sleep, he searches for women to help.

Ho has been known to frequent the city’s notorious Downtown Eastside, where serial killer Robert Pickton trolled for some of the 49 prostitutes he killed at his rural pig farm.

“It’s worse when it rains . . . that's when I get into the car and go looking for them,” Ho told PostMedia. “The truth is I’m addicted to helping them.”

Reinfjell’s claim doesn’t specify damages, but includes a litany of “severe personal damages,” including:

  • pain and bruising on her head, arm, back and legs;
  • a concussion;
  • pain in her shoulders, shoulder blades, low back and knee;
  • a broken ankle and heel;
  • emotional trauma;
  • psychological injuries requiring long-term counselling;
  • “a deep sense of mistrust and fear resulting in sleep disorders and flashbacks;”
  • post-traumatic stress disorder;
  • humiliation and degradation;
  • a loss of income, past, present and future due to the wrongful actions of the defendant; and,
  • “other injuries, disabilities and complaints” to be disclosed.

However, those who know Ho say he has spent thousands helping women. One of his aides told The Province he still gives money to a Hungarian woman pulled from the street, helped reunite a university professor with her runaway daughter and wrote a $15,000 check so a woman could repair her broken teeth.

"I don't know what to think. I have seen him try so hard to help some of these girls and I know for sure he has helped many young girls," said the aide, who the paper didn’t name. "He has some enemies and I feel really sad today . . . he has a good heart.”

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