By Sheldon Spackman

15 Days

Extra time behind bars for Ponoka man convicted of human trafficking and sexual assault

Sep 16, 2025 | 1:29 PM

An additional 15 days behind bars has been given to a Ponoka man convicted of human trafficking and sexual assault.

Christopher Becks, 39, was sentenced in Wetaskiwin Court of King’s Bench on Sept. 9, 2025, after being convicted on two counts of fail to comply. He was found not guilty, however, on one count of sexual assault in regards to incidents that took place in Ponoka between Sept. 29-Oct. 13, 2023.

Becks is already serving a five-and-a-half year jail term after being sentenced in Edmonton Court of King’s Bench on March 5, 2025, to 2,007 days in jail minus 702 days of pre-trial custody, leaving him with 1,305 days (just over three-and-a-half years) left to serve.

He was also given a weapons prohibition, ordered to provide his DNA, and is subject to SOIRA (Sexual Offender Information Registration Act).

The initial sentence was handed down after Becks plead guilty to five counts regarding two separate incidents. The first one taking place between July 1-16, 2022, where he plead guilty to charges of material benefit from sexual services and advertising sexual services.

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The second incident taking place between Oct. 1-14, 2022, where he plead guilty to charges of trafficking in persons, sexual assault, and threats to cause death.

Six other charges between those two incidents were withdrawn.

It was in October 2022, when ALERT Human Trafficking received information that a man was targeting vulnerable women, many with no fixed address, in the Edmonton area.

“It’s our understanding that this man was actively searching out women who were struggling with addiction,” said Staff Sgt. Christopher Hayes, ALERT Human Trafficking, at the time of Becks’ arrest. “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.”

On Dec. 20, 2022, officials with ALERT say a search warrant was executed at a home in the Ottewell neighbourhood. The Edmonton Police Service assisted in the search warrant and Becks was arrested.

“We believe that Becks has exploited more than a dozen women and we are asking these women to come forward. There’s a community of these women that he targets, and these women may better recognize him by the name ‘Bear’. We are here to help, but there’s only so much we can do with the intelligence we have collected thus far,” Hayes added, at the time of Becks’ arrest.

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