Brothel bosses jailed for up to 14 years

A gang of "callous" sex traffickers and brothel bosses, who subjected a terrified teenager and a young mother to a nightmare of "sex slavery", were jailed for up to 14 years each today.

Their youngest victim, a 16-year-old Slovakian, was a virgin when she fell into their clutches.

She sobbed uncontrollably as she described being lured to Britain with promises of a well-paid pub job by one of her mother's so-called friends.

Instead he betrayed her into a seemingly never-ending ordeal of repeated rapes in sleazy brothels, a succession of "owners", endless customers and frequent violence.

Another victim, a 22-year-old mother, was also snared with empty assurances of well-paid work in London.

She eventually left her baby daughter with relatives in Lithuania convinced she finally had the opportunity to build a better future for them both.

But the life of luxury painted by one of her brother's old classmates soon saw her in the clutches of a ruthless Albanian gang who forced her to entertain numerous clients.

London's Southwark Crown Court heard during six weeks of degradation and torment she was passed from one group of men to another.

They used and abused her repeatedly, ignoring her pleas for mercy and leaving her pregnant.

The main defendant, Turk Ali Arslan, 43, of Newnton Close, Stamford Hill, north London, admitted two counts of keeping brothels.

The jury trying the case also convicted him of controlling prostitution for gain, controlling a child prostitute and trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation.

He got 14 years.

His brother-in-law and fellow Turkish national Mesut Arslan, 26, from Harrowgate Road, Upton, east London, was imprisoned for two-and-a-half years after being found guilty of one brothel keeping count and the child prostitution offence.

Slovakian Edward Facuna, 54, of St Mary's Court, Peterborough, and Czech-born Roman Pacan, 39, of nearby Parliament Street, were found guilty of trafficking the teenager into the UK for sexual exploitation and received 11 years each.

Kosovan Martin Doci, 29, of Vale Road, Upton, was also convicted of controlling child prostitution as well as trafficking within the UK for sexual exploitation and was jailed for 11 years.

Albanian Valmir Gjetja, 29, of Avon Road, Greenford, Middlesex, was convicted of controlling prostitution and got three years.