Sex Trafficking2008
United Kingdom GB
Oriental Gems was an "online brothel", which specialized in girls from the South East Asia. A gallery on the site showed photographs of more than 60 naked and semi-naked women. Many of them were effectively commodities who had been traded and invested in by "bondholders". Southwark Crown Court heard that Oriental Gems was run by Pongpoj Pitayatanakul, his brother Bordee, and Pongpoj's girlfriend Monthira Duangthip, all from Guildford, Surrey. They employed four men as drivers and assistants: Panya Peakaew, from Paddington, west London, Nopharat Charoenying, and Graipich Vudto, from Bayswater, central London, and Thatri Pornpaditkong, from central London. One specific case is of a woman - advertised on the website as "Helen" – who had been "bought" from her traffickers by a syndicate of two women and a man for £11,000 and then told she would have to pay her "bondholders" £30,000 to win her own freedom. Brian O'Neill, prosecuting, said she effectively had to sleep with 300 men, at £100 a time, to buy herself out of a modern-day form of slavery. The "bondholders", who effectively owned several of the women and expected them to pay off their £30,000 debt, were two women, Jirapha Sriwicha, of Hendon, north London and Sutima Khongpon, and Phanusak Kaewbenjarkarn, both from Streatham, south London. Metropolitan Police’s Chief Superintendent Ian Dyson, in charge of the Clubs and Vice Unit has said, “What is notable about this gang is the level of exploitation that the women had to work under - their debt bondages are the highest we have ever come across - in the region of £28,000.”
Sex Trafficking2010
United Kingdom GB
Five of the six men were convicted and spent up to 14 years jail time Two men from Peterborough, Slovakian Edward Facuna, 54, and Czech-born Roman Pacan, 39, charged for trafficking a Slovakian teenager to the UK for sexual exploitation and were both sentenced 11 years in jail Turkish-born Ali Arslan, convicted of controlling two brothels, controlling prostitution for gain, controlling a child prostitute and trafficking a teenager to the UK for sexual exploitation, was sentenced for 14 years. a 26 year old spend two and a half years in jail for brothel keeping and a child prostitution offence. He was cleared of trafficking in the UK. Kosovan Martin Doci, 29, was convicted of controlling child prostitution and trafficking a teenager within the UK and received 11 years jail time. 29 year old Valmir Gjetia of Albania was jailed for three years under the changes of controlling prostitution
Sex Trafficking2023
United Kingdom GB
Vulnerable women were recruited in Romania and transported to the United Kingdom for sexual exploitation. The organized crime group operated an escort agency in London, took at least half of the victims’ earnings and charged them for transport, lodging and advertising, creating financial dependency. Threats and violence were used to maintain control.