Innocent 23-year-old from Nigeria was promised education, job and home in UK.
She was given a fake passport and told she owed the gang £40,000.
Victim was then assaulted and raped before subjected to ‘juju’ death ritual. She was forced to cut pubic hair and finger nails in black magic ceremony.
The gang told her curse meant she would die if she didn’t pay them back.
When she arrived in London, she was told she would work as a sex slave
Olusoji Oluwafemi, 44, Johnson Olayinka, 45, and Florence Obadiaru, 48, were convicted of trafficking the woman into the UK at the Old Bailey.
Three members of an international prostitution ring that smuggled a Nigerian woman into the UK to work as a sex slave under the threat of a voodoo curse are facing jail today.
The gang conned the innocent 23-year-old into flying to the Heathrow Airport on a bogus passport with the promise of education, a job and a new home.
Before leaving Nigeria, she was raped and forced to go through a black magic juju death ritual to prevent her running away.
But when the woman arrived in London, her employment failed to materialise. Instead, she was told she was destined to work as a sex slave in Italy, a court heard.
The plan was only thwarted when Italian authorities spotted her forged ID and sent her back to the UK.
It is believed the woman is just one of many victims of the group, based in Africa, that trafficks young women through England to work as prostitutes in mainland Europe.
Olusoji Oluwafemi, 44, Johnson Olayinka, 45, and Florence Obadiaru, 48, were convicted of trafficking the woman into the UK for sexual exploitation and arranging for her transfer to Italy.
Oluwafemi and Olayinka were also found guilty of conspiring to get the woman a false passport.
Oluwatosin Osoba, 48, was acquitted of the same charge following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Judge Rebecca Poulet said custody is inevitable and sentence was adjourned until July 11.
The victim, who only spoke a little English, had been recruited by a Nigerian local called Beneditta in her home village near Benin City.
Her family had struggled financially since the death of her father in 2008. She aspired to become a nurse.
In February 2011, Beneditta offered to help the young woman by sending her to England to be educated properly and get a job, the court heard.
She was told the cost would be £40,000 which she would have to repay to the organisers.
Prosecutor Christopher Ames told the court: “She had no idea at all what £40,000 was in her own currency, her life had been very hard after her father died, and she jumped at the chance to be educated and be trained for a job, and get away from the desperation and misery of her current family situation.
“She was very excited, a naive young girl, at the prospect of going abroad.”
She was sent to the Nigerian capital of Lagos on March 23, 2011 to meet a man called Felis who made her a false passport and coached her in getting through UK immigration.
“While he was doing that, he began to sexually assault her.
“That led him to beat her with a belt and that in turn led to him raping her that night,” said Mr Ames.
When she complained to Beneditta the next morning, she was told: “It was what you should have expected”.
She was then told to pose for photographs with a man who would pretend to be her husband.
In September 2011, she was summoned to the West African country of Benin to get a visa.
The woman was then told to swear an oath to repay the money in a ceremony that involved cutting her armpit and pubic hair and taking finger nail clippings.
“The oath she was solemnly required to take was to repay that money, £40,000, on pain of death if she did not,” said Mr Ames.
‘This was what was known as a juju ceremony.’
She was driven to Lagos on September 12, 2011 and put on a plane to the UK, meeting Olayinka at Heathrow Airport.
Olayinka, calling himself ‘Mike’, checked her into the Marbella Hotel in Peckham, south London, and took away her money and passport. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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