MADISON, Wis. (WTVO) — Cory Hereford, 50, has been found guilty of sex crime charges for preying upon vulnerable young women, giving them heroin, and convincing them to engage in prostitution.

A woman contacted Janesville Police after she says she found concerning messages between Hereford and her 16-year-old daughter in 2017.

Hereford is a registered sex offender for a 1994 conviction of second-degree sexual assault of a child.

According to the U.S Department of Justice, Hereford and his co-defendant, Tonyeil Partee, 30, of Janesville, recruited victims at a home on South Franklin Street in Janesville, used for distributing heroin and cocaine.

The pair would then compel the victims into commercial sex work by sometimes withholding the heroin to induce withdrawal sickness, prosecutors said, and at other times, threatening violence.

“This defendant preyed on vulnerable members of our society – young women and girls addicted to drugs,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.  “Using their addictions to lure them deeper into the world of drugs and prostitution, he trafficked these victims for his own greed, without regard to their age, their pain, or their safety. We will continue to enforce our human trafficking laws to restore freedom and dignity to victims of this crime.”

Hereford will be sentenced on May 12th, 2022. He faces up to life in prison.