Gist

Nigerian woman smuggled to

the UK to work as sex slave &

forced to undergo voodoo to

prevent her from running away

3 members of an international prostitution ring that

smuggled a Nigerian woman into the UK to work as

a sex slave under the threat of a voodoo curse

faced jail yesterday June 13, UK Daily Mail reports The gang conned the innocent 23-year-old into

flying to Heathrow Airport on a bogus passport

with the promise of education, a job and a

new home. Before leaving Nigeria, she was raped and

forced to go through a black magic ‘juju’ death

ritual to prevent her running away. But when the woman arrived in London, her

employment failed to materialize. Instead, she

was told she was destined to work as a sex

slave in Italy, a court heard. Convicted: Gang members; Johnson Olayinka (left)

and Florence Obadiaru (right). Continue... The plan was only thwarted when Italian authorities

spotted her forged ID and sent her back to the UK. It is believed the woman is just one of many

victims of the group, based in Africa, that traffics

young women through England to work as

prostitutes in mainland Europe. Olusoji Oluwafemi, 44, Johnson Olayinka, 45, and

Florence Obadiaru, 48, were convicted of

trafficking the woman into the UK for sexual

exploitation and arranging for her transfer to Italy.

Oluwafemi and Olayinka were also found guilty of

conspiring to get the woman a false passport. Oluwatosin Osoba, 48, was acquitted of the same

charge following a trial at the Old Bailey. Judge Rebecca Poulet said custody is inevitable

and sentence was adjourned until July 11.

The victim, who only spoke a little English, had

been recruited by a Nigerian local called Beneditta

in her home village near Benin City.

Her family had struggled financially since the death of her father in 2008, but she aspired to become a

nurse. In February 2011, Beneditta offered to help the

young woman by sending her to England to be

educated properly and get a job, the court heard. She was told the cost would be £40,000 - which

she would have to repay to the organisers.

Prosecutor Christopher Ames told the court: ‘She

had no idea at all what £40,000 was in her own

currency, her life had been very hard after her

father died, and she jumped at the chance to be educated and be trained for a job, and get away

from the desperation and misery of her current

family situation. ‘She was very excited, a naive young girl, at the

prospect of going abroad.’

She was sent to the Nigerian capital of Lagos on

March 23, 2011, to meet a man called Felis who

made her a false passport and coached her in

getting through UK immigration. ‘While he was doing that, he began to sexually

assault her’, said Mr Ames. ‘That led him to beat her with a belt and that in turn

led to him raping her that night.’

When she complained to Beneditta the next

morning, she was told: ‘It was what you should

have expected’.

She was then told to pose for photos with a man who would pretend to be her husband. In September 2011 she was summoned to the west

African country of Benin to get a visa. The woman

was then told to swear an oath to repay the money

in a ceremony that involved cutting her armpit and

pubic hair and taking finger nail clippings.

‘The oath she was solemnly required to take was to repay that money, £40,000, on pain of death if she

did not,’ said Mr Ames.

‘This was what was known as a juju ceremony.’

She was driven to Lagos on September 12, 2011

and put on a plane to the UK, meeting Olayinka at

Heathrow Airport. Olayinka, calling himself ‘Mike’, checked her into

the Marbella Hotel in Peckham, south London, and

took away her money and passport.

She was next taken to the house of Obadiaru, an

old friend of Beneditta’s, and kept there for a few

weeks with no sign of a job or education. Obadiaru’s son, who suffers from learning

difficulties, groped her on the first night in the

house in Brockley, southeast London.

But when she complained, Obadiaru allegedly told

her: ‘What do you think you are here for?’ The woman was told she was being sent to Italy on

October 3, 2011, and collected another false

passport from Olayinka’s home.

‘It was then for the first time that this very young

girl from a small village in Africa, miles away from

home, realised she was about to be sent to Italy to be forced into prostitution’, Mr Ames said. ‘She came to that gradual realisation, and she

suddenly remembered hearing conversations

between some men and their girls in Italy.

‘She couldn’t speak Italian and there was no

question of her being able to work in Italy in the

normal sense. ‘She became very upset and fearful of what

awaited her.’

The gang’s plan was thwarted by Italian

immigration officials, who stopped the woman on

an obviously forged passport at Milan Airport and

sent her straight back to the UK. After she was detained by immigration officials, the

woman led them to the alleged identity factory in

Osoba’s flat in South Bermondsey, southeast

London, and laptops which had been used to make

false documents by Olayinka. Mr Ames said the National Crime Agency launched

Operation Visionary after quizzing the woman ‘to

penetrate and stop the activities of an organised

crime group based in Africa and here in England,

which has as its aim the trafficking of vulnerable

young women from Nigeria to European countries, including Italy and France for the purpose of

prostitution’ Oluwafemi, of South Bermondsey, southeast

London, Olayinka, of Peckham Rye, southeast

London, and Obadiaru, of Brockley, south London

denied conspiracy to traffic a person to the UK for

the purpose of sexual exploitation, and conspiracy

to traffic a person out of the UK for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Oluwafemi, Olayinka, and Osoba, of South

Bermondsey, southeast London, denied conspiracy

to commit an offence of possessing false identity

documents.