Romanian mother who was trafficked to the UK reveals she was held captive in a West Midlands flat and forced to have sex with 20 men a day – and only escaped after she suffered internal bleeding that almost killed her
- Mother-of-one Elena trafficked to UK by man she thought was her boyfriend
- Forced to sleep with up to 20 men every day while locked in a West Midland’s flat
- She was repeatedly beaten, burned and was malnourished during her ordeal
- Her traffickers left her for dead when her horrific injuries led to internal bleeding
A mother-of-one who was trafficked to the UK reveals how she was forced to have sex with up to 20 men a day and only escaped after suffering internal bleeding as a result of injuries sustained at the hands of her violent captors.
Elena, a mother of one, was forced into prostitution by a man she thought she loved who threatened to harm her one-year-old son and mother unless she flew to the UK.
On arrival, she was taken to a flat in the West Midlands where she was held captive with two other victims and was starved, beaten and burned by her Romanian traffickers.
The women made up to £20,000 a day for their captors by having sex with a stream of punters, including drug addicts, sometimes for hours at a time.
Speaking on last night’s BBC Two documentary Sold: Sex Slaves Next Door, Elena, who is now in a safe house, explained she only escaped after she began to bleed internally as a result of the abuse she had suffered, prompting her captors to flee.
Mother-of-one Elena, who was trafficked to the UK from Romania by her so-called boyfriend, was starved, beaten and burned while kept as a sex slave in a West Midlands flat
Elena, who has since been placed in a safe house, appeared on last night’s BBC Two documentary Sold: Sex Slaves Next Door exploring women who have been trafficked from Romania to the UK for sex work
‘I started bleeding internally, I simply couldn’t walk or crawl on my knees. I was about to die,’ she said.
She was rescued by police and was taken to hospital where a consultant said she was just hours away from death.
Simone Lord, who works for Medaille, a charity providing refuge to victims of modern slavery, said: ‘I’ve never seen anyone in that state before.
‘She was repeatedly beaten she had been malnourished, she had burns, lots of wounds on her body, One of the consultants in there estimated she only had 48 hours to live.’
Elena was tricked using a tactic called ‘lover boy’, where members of criminal gangs pretend to be in a relationship with the victim before sending them abroad for lucrative sex work.
She was forced to leave her one-year-old son behind in Romania when the man she thought she loved threatened to harm her son and mother if she didn’t travel to the UK.
‘I didn’t have any other choice but to come to the UK,’ she said. ‘He threatened to hurt my child and kill my mother. In that moment I got scared.’
When Elena began haemorrhaging as a result of her atrocious injuries her traffickers fled and she was rescued by police and placed into a safe house by a charity
As soon as she arrived she was locked in a flat with two other women where she was forced to endure sex with multiple strangers, sometimes for up to five or six hours.
‘There were three of us – me and two other girls,’ she said. ‘I had to do the same thing every day – sleep with different men.
‘I would say 10 or 20 every day. There were some who’d stay even five or six hours, especially the drug addicts.’
Elena was forced to advertise herself as a prostitute online, with her captor taking all the money she made.
‘I was spied on from every angle. He knew everything – when I went to sleep, what time I woke up, how much money we all made, how we made it,’ said Elena.
‘In a day I was making £20,000. Sometimes I made more. All the money I made I gave to him.’
Simone Lord, who works for a charity providing refuge to victims of modern slavery, said: ‘I’ve never seen anyone in that state before’
Despite Elena providing evidence to the police, her case has been dropped after her trafficker fled back to Romania.
‘I feel frustrated,’ she said. ‘I feel angry. They wanted more concrete evidence but I didn’t have any because he knew how to manipulate everything to make sure I didn’t have any evidence.’
Despite her frustration at her criminal case, Elena said she has finally been able to ‘enjoy her freedom’ and dreams of ‘having a little house to be able to work and save money, to give my son a better future.’
There were nearly 6,000 recorded sex trafficking victims in England and Wales between April 2018 and December 2020 and police say these numbers are likely far lower than the reality.
Detective Colin Ward, from Greater Manchester Police, who runs a specialist modern-slavery unit, said: ‘Sex-trafficking is rife in the UK’
Detective Colin Ward, from Greater Manchester Police, who runs a specialist modern-slavery unit, said: ‘Sex-trafficking is rife in the UK.
‘We don’t have anywhere near the true picture of how many victims there are. It must be miles bigger than what we know already.
‘People will have neighbours who are victims of sex trafficking. It’s got harder for us because they could be anywhere.’
He says Romanian women often lack trust in police, meaning they are too afraid to reach out to law enforcement when they arrive in the UK.
‘Romanian women, in general, have very little trust in the police,’ he said. ‘The experience they have with the police in their own country can be really poor.’
Iana Matei, who runs the only shelter for trafficked children in Romania revealed that criminal gangs send recruiters into schools to enlist girls as young as 13 into sex work abroad
Inside the shelter for trafficked children in Romania. Some victims become convinced their captors are in love with them and tell police they want to be with their ‘lover boy’ recruiter
‘I’ve been doing this for 14 years now and I can count on one hand how many victims have said “I’m a victim, I need help”.’
Iana Matei, who runs the only shelter for trafficked children in Romania revealed that criminal gangs send recruiters into schools to enlist girls as young as 13 into sex work abroad.
‘The lover-boy method is the most horrible method of recruiting girls,’ she said.
‘There are recruiters in the school yards and they talk to the girls. I have a 13-year-old girl, Daniella, right here who is desperately trying to get back to her 52-year-old lover boy.
‘When she runs away she tells the police, “I want to go to my lover boy, he’s 52-year-old and I love him”.’
A loophole in Romanian law means that if a girl says she wants to go with the trafficker by choice, families have no way of getting their children home.
Sold: Sex Slaves Next Door is available on BBCiPlayer
Source: Read Full Article
