Romanian Brothers Jailed for UK Sex Trafficking Operation
Men tricked young women to travel to Britain before trapping them in sex slavery
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Two Romanian brothers have been jailed in the UK for running a sex trafficking operation targetting young women from Europe.
Ilcic Dumitru, 19, and Ioan Dumitru, 24, forced one of their sex slaves to work as a prostitute even after becoming pregnant with a client's baby, the court heard.
The Dumitru bros tricked the young woman into traveling to the UK on the promise of a factory job but, instead, they were raped by up to 15 men a day.
One victim, a 20-year-old woman from Romania, was forced to pick up clients the day she arrived in Britain.
She told police she was threatened with being attacked if she did not make money for the pair of pimps.
One of the brothers' client's condom split shortly after she arrived in London and she became pregnant, police said.
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When she was around seven months pregnant, she feared the baby was dead as she could no longer feel it move.
According to police, this fear came about because of a forced attempted abortion.
However, she did later give birth to a healthy baby boy.
She managed to get away from her captors when a client asked her if she was in touch with her family in Romania and she told him about her ordeal.
A week later the mystery man came to see her again and gave her a small mobile phone which she hid and then contacted her family in her homeland.
They then contacted Romanian authorities and last December the country's consulate called the Met Police.
When the woman first arrived in Britain last April, she was picked up from Luton Airport by the two brothers and taken to a house in Plumstead, southeast London, where two other Romanian women were living.
Her passport and travel documents were then taken from her so she could not leave Britain and return home, police said.
On the evening of her arrival in the UK, she was immediately told to get ready in "sexy clothes" as they were going out to work and was driven to north London.
There she was handed a small bag of wipes and condoms and told she was working the streets.
The victim told the men she had never done this type of work before, but she was told she "would learn," police said.
She was forced into having her first "customer" that night and Ioan Dumitru threatened to "break her head" if she did not make any money for them.
Through the fear of violence and the control the brothers had on her, she continued working on the street as a sex worker, Scotland Yard said.
She was forced to sleep with 10 to 15 men a day, sometimes making up to £1,000 a day, which was immediately taken away from her by her captors.
The woman was regularly beaten and abused by the two men, once with a stick on the back of her legs.
She was never allowed to leave the house on her own and always had someone with her, police said.
Two Romanian officers, who are seconded to the UK to help with international affairs with Romania, were instrumental in helping detectives once the woman contacted her family without her captors' knowledge.
They and a team of officers were immediately deployed to the house in Plumstead and both men were arrested for offenses under the Modern Slavery Act, controlling prostitution and actual bodily harm.
Ilcic was also arrested for supplying drugs after evidence was discovered on his phone at the time of his arrest.
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At Woolwich Crown Court on Friday, both men were sentenced after pleading guilty earlier this year at the same court.
Ilcic Dumitru was jailed for 15 years and three months for conspiracy to traffic into the UK for sexual exploitation, conspiracy to hold a person in servitude, and supplying class A drugs - namely cocaine.
Ioan Dumitru was jailed for 16 years' for sex trafficking and conspiracy to hold a person in servitude.
Detective Inspector Grant Anderson, from the Met's Modern Slavery and Child Sexual Exploitation Unit (MSCE), said: "This was an awful crime which subjected a vulnerable young woman to a hideous way of life.
"We know she will never forget her time in captivity but I can report she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
"I hope she now has some closure after knowing these men will be behind bars for a long time.
"We are committed to bringing these offenders to justice and will continue to work with local and oversea partners to do this."
