Two brothers who trafficked and held a young woman in slavery have been jailed after pleading guilty.
Human Trafficking
BREAKING NEWS: World Day Against Trafficking, 30th July 2020
On Friday, two brothers who trafficked and held a young woman in slavery were jailed for a collective 30 years.
They trafficked a 20-year-old woman, from Romania to London for sexual exploitation. She was tricked into coming to the UK in 2019 after being promised work in a factory. Instead she was forced to sleep with 10 to 15 clients a day, even after she became pregnant when one of her client’s condoms split.
IJM partnered with the MET Police to bring her to safety and now her captors are being held to account.
During the trial, the court heard how the traffickers collected the young woman from Luton Airport, 7th April 2019. They confiscated her travel documents, forced her into ‘sexy clothes,' handed her a bag of wipes and condoms and told her she was working the streets.
When the victim told the men she had never done this type of work before, she was told she would learn. She was forced into having her first customer that night and the trafficker threatened to ‘break her head’ if she did not make any money for them, reported the MET Police.
She was regularly beaten and abused by her captors, once with a stick on the back of her legs. She was never allowed to leave the house on her own.
When she was around seven months’ pregnant, she feared the baby was dead as she could no longer feel it move. This was the result a forced attempted abortion.
It was around this time that a client asked her if she was in touch with her family in Romania. She told him a few of the awful things that had happened to her. A week later, the unknown man, came to see her again and gave her a small mobile phone which she hid.
She managed to get in contact with her family in Romania without her captors knowledge.
On Wednesday, 18 December 2019 Romanian authorities contacted Met officers from the Modern Slavery and Child Sexual Exploitation Unit (MSCE).
Two Romanian officers, who are seconded to the UK to help with international affairs with Romania, were instrumental in helping detectives. They and a team of officers were immediately deployed to the address and both men were arrested for offences under Section 2 of the Modern Slavery Act, controlling prostitution and actual bodily harm.
On Friday 24th July, one trafficker was sentenced to 15 years and three months’ imprisonment for conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the trafficking into the UK a person for sexual exploitation, conspiracy to hold a person in servitude and being in concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, namely cocaine.
The other brother was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the trafficking into the UK a person for sexual exploitation and conspiracy to hold a person in servitude.
Detective Inspector Grant Anderson, from the MSCE unit, said: “This was an awful crime which subjected a vulnerable young woman to a hideous way of life. We know she will never forget her time in captivity but I can report she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
“We are committed to bringing these offenders to justice and will continue to work with local and overseas partners to do this.”
[Photo shows the bedroom where survivor was held. Photo from MET Police News Report]