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Sex slaves trafficker is jailed for 18 years
AN ILLEGAL immigrant has been jailed for 18 years for trafficking women from Eastern Europe and forcing them to work as prostitutes in a Sheffield massage parlour.
The case was the first of its kind to reach trial in the UK since new laws were introduced last year to halt the burgeoning trade in humans.
Albanian Taulant Merdanaj, aged 28, lured the Lithuanian women aged 21 and 24, to Britain with false promises of employment.
When they arrived at Heathrow airport they were met and driven to Sheffield's Park Hill flats to become sex slaves.
Merdanaj regularly raped one of the women, aged 21, and threatened to kill her if she contacted police. Both women were stripped of their passports and identification.
They were frequently beaten and not allowed out unless accompanied by Merdanaj and his co-accused Elidon Bregu, a 19-year-old Kosovan.
At Sheffield Crown Court Merdanaj was convicted of 13 counts including sex trafficking into the UK, sex trafficking within the UK, three counts of rape, two charges of inciting prostitution and two counts of false imprisonment.
Bregu was convicted of sex trafficking within the UK and falsely imprisoning the two women, who believed they were coming to Britain to work as a cleaner and a waitress. He was cleared of rape and jailed for nine years.
Both men face deportation on their release.
During a two week trial, a jury heard how the women were forced to work at Club 160 on Attercliffe Road, Attercliffe, with Merdanaj confiscating all their takings.
The women were locked in Bregu's flat, on Long Henry Row, when they were not being pimped. The woman raped by Merdanaj told the jury she was beaten and raped a least twice a week between July and September this year.
The men's hold over the women ended when the older woman, whose partner and child remained in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, told other girls at Club 160 how she found a gun in a drawer at the Park Hill flat.
Police raided the flat and Merdanaj, who entered Britain on the back of a lorry, was arrested. Bregu was later detained in Coventry.
Both men denied sex trafficking and their part in the plot.
The disturbing case was the first of its kind since powerful new laws were introduced to crackdown on the sex trade - a modern day slavery which has become the world's third most lucrative illegal industry behind the global sale of drugs and guns.
Today Det Supt John Parr welcomed the lengthy, deterrent sentences handed to the men saying they sent out a "clear and unequivocal message to those involved in sex trade slavery".
"I'm happy that we have been able to investigate what turned out to be a particularly nasty offence," he added.
Judith Walker, Chief Crown Prosecutor for South Yorkshire said: "Anyone who was in court could not fail to be moved by the testimony of what these women endured. "
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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