Clifton Hotel, Kew, Melbourne, Australia
The case was initially brought to the attention of the authorities by an informant in 1997 and it resulted in the arrest of Mr Glazner 14 months later in 1999. Glazner had bought Thai women from agents in Thailand for between $15,000 and $18,000, and they had knowingly come to Australia to work as prostitutes (McKinney 2001). Evidence was presented at an initial committal hearing showing that the women feared Glazner and that he withheld their passports, restricted their movements, and kept them in debt bondage (Police vs. Gary Galzner and Paul Donato Marino 1999). Detective Senior Sergeant Ivan McKinney outlined the evidence presented (at the committal hearing and trial) at a public forum in 2001. He said Glazner chose to enforce the “contract” under the first condition of 500 “free jobs”, each job being a half hour of sex. (McKinney 2001). At least 40 women were proven to be connected to Glazner through DIMIA records. Investigators suspected four to five times this many women were involved. The women were generally prostituted for 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. McKinney detailed the conditions of sexual servitude under which the women were kept upon arrival in Australia. Their living conditions at the Kew hotel where they were housed were extremely cramped and they were locked in. Glazner had installed a large locked iron gate and bars on the stairwells, and sealed the windows. Glazner or an associate drove them to and picked them up from the brothel where they were prostituted (McKinney 2001). Journalist Mark Forbes, reporting on the trial for the Age newspaper, wrote that Glazner had verbally abused and intimidated the women, and kept a loaded gun in clear view of the women at the hotel (Forbes 1999). The women feared for their lives and of reprisals against themselves or their families back in Thailand. As “Michelle’s” translator stated for her at the trial: “She said if she is here, maybe she will die. If she goes back to Thailand, she will die” (Police vs. Gary Galzner and Paul Donato Marino 1999.
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