Natasa Demeterova, aged 43, and husband Josef, took half or all of the girls' earnings from the sex trade for themselves.

They were even responsible for bringing one homeless girl to Sheffield from Slovakia specifically to work as a prostitute for them.

Det Sgt Alisdar Duncan said after the case: "We talk about 200 years since the abolition of slavery but this is a new kind of slavery where women are forced to work in the sex trade."

Sheffield Crown Court heard that Demeterova - who settled in Eldon Road, Eastwood, Rotherham, after coming from Slov-akia in 2005 - found the girls accommodation when they arrived in the city but told them they would have to find work to pay their way.

But the women - two who came from Slovakia and one from the Czech Republic - could not find jobs because they spoke no English.

Within days the couple had offered them work in a 'bar' which the women believed to be legitimate - but instead involved working as prostitutes at the Omega massage parlour in Attercliffe and later The Bamboo Rooms in Sheff-ield Road, Tinsley.

Demeterova admitted one count of trafficking into the UK for sexual exploitation and three counts of controlling prostitution for gain, but a trial of issue had to be held to determine the extent of her involvement.

Josef remains at large and Demeterova claimed although she had "supported" him he had been the one in control.

But Sarah Wright, prosecuting, told Sheffield Crown Court it was a "family enterprise".

And she added that Natasa Demeterova had been "very interested" in the money - regularly checking up on how many clients the girls had seen and even searching their lockers.

Judge John Swanson said: "These are serious offences because they prey on human weakness and also upon human misery."



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