Abstracts: December 2003
December 5, 2003
Pole Dancing Hits Derry
According to this article:
The "Quiet Man" pub in Derry offers "Vegas-style exotic pole dancers" twice weekly for a £10 cover charge. This has been going on for "a number of months" but was advertised on a "hush-hush" basis. The girls are brought to Derry from North Antrim and paid approximately £70 per evening. The manager of the pub declined to comment for the article.
Quotes:
"I am absolutely against this exploitation. Derry needs a lot of things imported, but lapdancers are not part of it." "Women who make a living in this way have very little in the way of choices and if people looked into it, they would realise that. Who really wants to spend an evening dancing up and down a pole in a smoke filled room full of men?" -Mary Nelis, Sinn Fein
"Current legislation governing entertainment licenses makes a provision for singing, music and dancing and other forms of prescribed entertainment and does not - at this stage - make a distinction in the provision by defining such activities." Derry City Council
- "Pole Dancing Hits Derry". ic.derry.com. 5 Dec. 2003. <http://icderry.icnetwork.co.uk/news/localnews/
page.cfm?objectid
=13694691&method=full&siteid=66002>
December 14, 2003
Pole positions for prostitutes
ic Birmingham
Caroline Wheeler
According to this article:
Earlier in 2003, the General, Municipal and Boilermakers’ Union (GMB) offered subsidised courses to train prostitutes and porn stars to become lap dancers in an effort to help them take up a more "respectable" career. The classes are thought to be running in all major cities and subsidised by union members and government funds. Simon Warr, president of Spearmint Rhino labelled the move "foolhardy and unwelcome" and claimed it indicated a common misconception about the industry.
Lap-dancing courses were discussed at a conference for sex industry workers held in Birmingham and hosted by the GMB. During the conference, Met. Police commander Andy Baker backed the introduction of tolerance zones. Ana Lopes, spokeswoman for the
International Sex Workers Union (ISWU), a branch of the GMB, told the conference the new lap-dancing classes were very popular. A leaflet advertising the course was handed out to prostitutes at the conference.
December 22, 2003
Albanian Faces Jail over Sex Slave Empire
The Scotsman
Melvyn Howe, PA News
According to this article:
For three weeks, London's Wood Green Crown Court heard the case of Albanian Luan Plakici, a former asylum seeker, who smuggled kidnapped eastern European women into Britain using a British passport "conned" from the Home Office. His "sex slave empire" was worth £1 million. Plakici pled guilty to 7 counts of people trafficking and helping up to 60 women illegally enter Britain. He was found guilty of 3 kidnapping counts, 1 count of procruing a teenager to have unlawful sex and incitement to rape, and 3 counts of living on prostitution between July 2000 and October 2002.
He married one teenaged woman "but only for her earning potential" and she spent their wedding night selling her body. Plakici forced her to have 2 abortions and return to work hours after each. His wife earned £144,000 him in less than two years. She, like the other sex slaves, had been lured from her loving family with promises of jobs and money in the West.
The women became virtual prisoners; bought, sold, raped and forced into prostitution. The girls serviced up to 20 men per day, 7 days a week to reimburse Plakici for the £8,000 travel bill they owed. Any dissent resulted in violence, rape and threats to their families. They were penniless and unable to speak English while Plakici lived in luxury. Plakici used "McCoy's guide to massage parlours in the UK" to find brothels in which to place the girls.
Plakici was arrested after one of the girls escaped, flagged down a passing police car and begged for safety for her and her younger sister.
December 22, 2003
Albanian ran £1m sex slave empire
Press Association
(Details of the Plakici case as above.)
Further information in this article:
After three weeks of testimony at London's Wood Green Crown Court Albanian Luan Plakici, 26, admitted seven counts of people-trafficking and confessed to helping up to 60 women illegally enter Britain. He was jailed for 10 years.
Further details as above.
December 22, 2003
Jail for head of sex slave gang
BBC News
(Details of the Plakici case as above.)
Further information in this article:
After a two month trial, Albanian Luan Plakici was convicted of offences including kidnap and incitement to rape, at Wood Green Crown Court. He was jailed for 10 years. Plakici was head of a £1m trafficking gang and used a false passport to smuggle kidnapped eastern European women into Britain to work as prostitutes. The women were supplied to brothels in north London, Bedford, Luton and Reading. Detectives said this was the biggest case of human trafficking seen in the UK.
Seven trafficked victims gave evidence in the trial and told how they were lured from loving families in Romania and Moldova with promises of wealth in the West and found themselves forced to work as prostitutes in massage parlours.
Quote:
"He was merciless in his exploitation of women for financial gain, terrifying his victims by beating and threatening to kill them if they did not comply with his demands. "These girls were put through a harrowing ordeal. Not only had they been kidnapped, raped and beaten and their hopes of a new start in life thwarted, Plakici forced them to relive their ordeals in front of a courtroom." -Detective Chief Inspector Mark Holmes
The bravery of the women who gave evidence and the work of police officers and the Reflex immigration taskforce were praised by Mark Holmes and Minister Beverley Hughes after the trial. Hughes also announced a pilot project (Eaves Housing for Women) providing support to trafficking victims that will receive more than £700,000 in Home Office funding for another year.
One of Plakici's "alleged henchmen", Ismet Islami was found not guilty of one count of rape.
December 22, 2003
Man behind £1m sex-slave empire jailed for 10 years
The Scotsman
John Innes
(Details of the Plakici case as above.)
Further information in this article:
Plakici came to Britain in 1996 claiming he was a refugee from Kosovo and obtaining political asylum. Plakici showed no reaction to the judges statement that he had shown a "flagrant disregard" for Britain's immigration laws.
December 22, 2003
Sex slave smuggler jailed
NEWS.com.au, Australia
(Details of the Plakici case as above.)
Further information in this article:
Plakici came to Britain in 1996, was granted asylum and then nationality in 1999. He worked as an interpreter for a string of law firms specialising in immigration cases and became a recognised expert, taking part in a BBC television documentary on immigration.
Plakici traveled through eastern Europe looking for women to lure to Britain with promises of riches and upon arrival force them to work as prostitutes. The women were provided with false passports and then forced to have sex with up to 20 men a day, seven days a week - to pay back the STG8,000 ($19,190) travel bill they owed him.
Quote:
"You took cynical advantage of the fact that these young women led lives of considerable hardship in their own countries...Young women in these circumstances were easy prey to you and your false promises to better their lives...You exploited their commendable wish to better themselves through honest hard work, for a life for themselves and their families not lived on the edge of poverty." Judge Robert Winstanley during sentencing.
- http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/
0,4057,8243629^1702,00.html
December 22, 2003
Sex trader gets 10 years
News24 - South Africa
(Details of the Plakici case as above.)
Further information in this article:
Plakici kept some women under his control and sold others to brothels.
December 22, 2003
Slave Trader'S Wife Earned Him £ 144000 In Two Years
Glasgow Daily Record
Andrew Walker
(Details of the Plakici case as above.)
Further information in this article:
Plakici's human trafficking empire was first exposed by the Sunday Mail. Using the name Artur Corbajram, he sold girls on to associates in Glasgow because London pimps thought they were ''lazy''. Plakici believed he would not be caught because the girls spoke very little English, were carefully watched and would be too ashamed to admit to their families back home they had worked as prostitutes.
Plakici had told police he was unemployed and had declared himself to the Inland Revenue as a ''self employed sub-contractor'' working with a demolition firm and earning just £18,000 a year. A police raid on his flat uncovered ''sex kits'' including condoms, lubricant and instructions on how to run a brothel. He was planning to set up his own brothel in Palmer's Green.
The trafficking ring was discovered when a 24-year-old Romanian woman escaped and sought police assistance. Police found her 17-year old sister in Plakici's flat. The sisters had been promised work in the UK and were driven from Romania to Prague where they met Plakici. They were later transported through Italy and France and arrived at Dover by ferry. Upon arrival Plakici incited other gang members to rape the 17 year old. The sisters did not want to be prostitutes and were beaten by Plakici.
Along with his wife, Plakici brought another 16 year old Moldovan woman who thought she was going to work as a care assistant in Italy. She was sold for £7000 to a Brighton pimp and forced to have sex with over 9 men per day. She was beaten on a regular basis for two years and an average week would see her having sex with about 60 men.
Plakici gave her a client price list which included £50 for full sex and £60 for both full and oral sex. Half the cash went to the brothel's receptionist and the rest to Plakici. She could make up to £500 a day but was beaten if it were less than £350. All clients were recorded in a book and checked by Plakici who would count the remaining condoms from a batch he supplied as proof of how many men she had sex with. She was beaten if there was any discrepancy.
Olessia Khledod, a 19 yr. old Russian philosophy student was forced by Plakici to work as a prostitute in Scotland. Olessia replied to a newspaper advert for work as a dancer in Belgium and left her home in St Petersburg for Brussels She ended up with one of Plakici's Albanian associates operating in Glasgow who took her passport and held her captive for a week before sending her to London with fake documents. Plakici, using the name Artur Corbarjam, met her upon arrival and sold her to a vice boss who put her to work in a dingy London flat. But after forcing her to have sex with dozens of men, she was handed back to Plakici because her pimp thought she was lazy. She was eventually sold 3 times before being bought by Glasgow pimp Titi Istogu. He forced her to work as a prostitute in a flat and took the cash she earned. Olessia eventually managed to escape and went to a safe house. She said: ''When men in London didn't want me, Artur called Titi. 'Every night, he would force me to have sex with him and his friends. I'm only 19 but I feel like I'm in my 30s.''
December 22, 2003
Ten Years for Man Who Ran Sex Slave Empire
The Scotsman
(Details of the Plakici case as above.)
December 23, 2003
10 Yrs For Sex Slave Smuggler
The Mirror
Andy Rudd
(Details of the Plakici case as above.)
December 23, 2003
Man behind £1m sex-slave empire jailed for 10 years
The Scotsman
John Innes
(Details of the Plakici case as above)
- http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1405062003
December 23, 2003
The horrors of the international sex trade
The Independent
Deborah Orr
(Details of the Plakici case as above)
Further information in this article:
The United Nations reports that about 700,000 women are being illegally trafficked around the world to supply the sex trade. Victims are typically fearful to testify against traffickers because they are beaten, raped and imprisoned by the traffickers who insist that the women must work as prostitutes in order to pay the costs of their travel. The women are also trapped by their status as illegal immigrants, threats against their families and their belief that police will not listen to them because they are involved in the sex industry.
The women trafficked by Plakici were from rural parts of Romania or Moldavia. In Moldavia, 90 per cent of its young people declare themselves desperate to leave. It is unclear what will happen to the women who testified against Plakici or whether sanctuary will be offered or sought. (Note: allegedly the women were sent back to their home countries)
A UK charity (Eaves Housing for Women)has been offered grants to offer safe haven to trafficking victims however government stipulations are "impossibly unwieldy". The charity cannot accept asylum seekers, women who will not cooperate with police and noone who will not agree to return home yet 22 women have been helped to escape from bondage. It's grant of 700,000 will be renewed next year.
It was recently announced that funding for tackling human trafficking will be increased by two thirds from a modest pounds 20m. There is a police unit specialising in sex-trafficking with 14 people in the squad and have said they need 200 to be able to do anything useful. The Home Office has promised it will look at ways to make it easier for trafficked victims to come forward.
Lilya 4-Ever, the film by the Swedish director Lucas Moodysson, tells a story about another trafficking victim similar to the one of the women in the Plakici case.
- http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/
deborah_orr/story.jsp?story=475637
December 24, 2004
Gang leader jailed
Independent
Kate Southern
(Details of the Plakici case as above)
Further information in this article:
Plakici smuggled the two Romanian sisters into the UK in October 2002. After refusing to work as prostitutes they were beaten by Plakici and separated. The older sister was taken to St George's Road, Palmers Green and raped. The younger sister was sold to an eastern European male and taken to Golders Green. Plakici threatened to kill her if she would not have sex with a number of men. She was then raped by her buyer and dumped in the street on Plakici's orders. Police found her in a state of distress.
The older sister eventually escaped and flagged down a police car. A 20-year-old man was arrested at the property in Palmers Green, which led to Plakici's arrest at his flat in Middleton Road, New Southgate, where the sisters were first taken. During a seach of the property officers arrested two drivers and discovered two 18-year-old cousins from Romania who had arrived in the UK that morning. Moments prior to the raid, Plakici had ordered them to sleep with the drivers. Police found correspondence relating to brothels in London, torn travel documents and passport-size photographs of girls.
Investigating officers eventually discovered three more victims; a Moldovan 17 year old who was forced to marry Plakici in March 2001 and two other Moldovans aged 18 and 21.
December 24, 2004
Sex slave smuggler jailed
This is Local London
(Details of the Plakici case as above)
Further information in this article:
When Luan Plakici was arrested he had £204,000 in the bank and a Ferrari sports car.
A confiscation hearing to seize the estimated £1million Plakici made from his crimes is due to take place in April 2005.
December 24, 2004
UK Government Renews Protection for Trafficked Women as Trafficker Sentenced
UN Observer
(Details of the Plakici case as above)
Further information in this article:
Luan Plakici could not be charged with trafficking for prostitution as the law came into effect in February 2003, after he was charged.
All of those who testified were sent back to their countries following raids because, when Plakici was arrested, there was no protection or support for women trafficked to the UK.
Anti-Slavery International said it hoped the Home Office will provide funding for the unconditional protection of all trafficked people, including those trafficked into labour exploitation.
December 26, 2003
Customers Make Sex Trade Boom
The Daily Record
Opinion re: Plakici case
The writer looks at the Plakici case and cautions against kidding ourselves that "prostitution is just another business with customers merely buying that which the girls are happily selling." The question is raised as to how Plakici managed to con his way into the UK and become a citizen.
Quote:
"...maybe the men, those ordinary Joes who are other women's husbands, fathers and brothers who use the saunas or who pick up girls on the drag, should remember that it's they who really keep the brothels blooming and booming Without them, it would wither. Without them, the women who were sexually abused, beaten and pimped by Plakici and those like him, wouldn't have been forced into the business.
The clients, too, are guilty. Have a merry one, guys."
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/content_objectid=13758380
_method=full_siteid=89488_headline=-CUSTOMERS-MAKE-SEX-TRADE-BOOM-name_page.html
December 28, 2003
The End Of A Vice Empire: Fiancé Flees To Scotland To Be A Hooker
Sunday Mail
(Details of the Plakici case as above)
Further information in this article:
Albanian Dorina Tugar, 27, was Plakici's childhood sweetheart and willingly joined him in the UK in 2000. She was allegedly engaged to marry him. Tugar looked after the trafficked women smuggled into the UK by Plakici.
Tugar split from Plakici and moved to Scotland after discovering he was having sex with other girls. She now works as a "high class call girl" in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and London. She tells clients she is Spanish and narrowly escaped being deported in 2002 by turning up late to her shirt at a Glasgow sauna that had been raided by immigration officials. She is alleged to have bought a girl herself in April 2002. The girl ran away with a client.
Plakici was in Glasgow weeks before he was arrested in October 2002. He visited Tugar at her flat in Glasgow city and she was apparently considering returning to London with him.
December 28, 2003
THE END OF A VICE EMPIRE: HOW SUNDAY MAIL NAILED BOSS OF UK'S BIGGEST SEX SLAVE GANG
Sunday Mail
Derek Alexander
(Details of the Plakici case as above)
Further information in this article:
The Sunday Mail smashed Luan Plakici's trafficking operation two years before the Metropolitan Police finally brought him to justice. After the Sunday Mail article, Plakici doled out beatings to every Eastern European girl who lived with him at the time.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Holmes praised the Sunday Mail for its expos on Plakici and his gang.
The Sunday mail had interviewed a Russian student, Olessia Khledod who described how she had been trafficked by Plakici. Khledod had been brought to the newspaper's attention after she used a Russian-English dictionary to tell a woman she had been brought to Glasgow and forced into prostitution. The Sunday Mail investigated Olessia's claims and discovered dozens of other victims.
Derek Alexander posed as a pimp and met with Plakici's Albanian associate Titi Istogu. He told him he had Olessia and Istogu would not be getting her back. Istogu responded that he would blow up his sauna.
Alexander then tracked Plakici down in London and recorded a meeting with him. The reporter posed as a Scottish pimp who was having trouble with a young Russian girl who had placed in his sauna by Titi Istogu. He told Plakici Olessia wanted Istogu to leave her alone. Plakici confirmed his identity and told Alexander that Olessia was lazy and a troublemaker and that Istogu was an idiot. He offered Olessia as a "gift" to Alexander and suggested they do more business.
December 28, 2003
Sex slaves for sale at £3,000 pounds each
The Sunday Mirror
Graham Johnson and Dominic Hipkins
According to this article:
Following the conviction of Luan Plakici, the Sunday Mirror investigated rival sex trafficking gangs and found teenage girls kidnapped, smuggled into Britain and sold as sex slaves for £3,000 each. Reporters infiltrated a Russian Mafia gang and were offered the chance to buy 100 girls kidnapped from the former Soviet Union, three of them 15 years old. A Russian godfather, "Ima" said they would send each one for six months at a cost of 5,000 euros (£3,000) each.
Reporters were shown around one of the Prague brothels used as a staging post on the smuggling route between East and West. They were told that any of the girls there were available to be smuggled into Britain for the right price. The first brothel "Dessert" in the tourist quarter held 12 "semi-naked" girls, three of which were only 15 years old. The reporters were then taken to the "safehouse" in a blacked out Mercedes driven by an armed bodyguard. The safehouse held 20 more prostitutes.
The reporters were told by a mafia boss "Andrei" that the girls could not escape and that their families in Russia would be hurt if they caused problems. He said they were easily smuggled into the EU as dancers or waitresses. He said the gang traveled freely to London using Israeli passports and that he was a Russian Jew who got his passport legally. He boasted about strong links to the Russian mafia in London and that nothing would stop them.
Another boss, "Yusef" said the girls had been in Prague for 6 months and he had 50 more girls as well. He claimed to control the business in Prague and that he also had businesses in Germany and Israel. He said that London was what they wanted because there was a lot of money there. In response to the Albanian mafia who control up to 70% of the London vice trade, Yusef said they were not a problem. He said that they could provide girls cheaper than anyone else.
The reporters were emailed details of a website containing explicit photos of 15 prostitutes available for trafficking into the UK. The site described services as one hour of "usual sex, oral without a condom and a striptease" at a cost £30.
December 31, 2003
Brothels could be licensed in overhaul of sex trade laws
The Independent
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor
According to this article:
The Home Office plans to overhaul prostitution laws for the first time in 50 years after a Green Paper acknowledging that current legislation was chaotic and penalised sex workers as much as pimps.
Under the new laws, brothels could potentially be licensed as well as soliciting decriminilised. Prostitution is currently legal but public manifestations of prostitution are illegal. More than 35 offences govern the sex trade. There has been pressure from some police officers and councils such as Birmingham to legalise prostitution zones. An experimental scheme in Edinburgh was recently abandoned.
Ministers intend to consider all available options as they attempt to tackle the involvement of organised crime and drugs in the sex trade. The review is expected early in 2004. Minimising the public nuisance will be a priority.
Commencing in 2004, new powers are being handed over to courts in England in Wales to remove indefinitely the driving licences of people who use their vehicles to commit crimes, including kerb-crawling.
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