Traded sex slave wins Home Office payout

A Moldovan treated as a sex slave in six countries today won a substantial payout from the Home Office in a landmark judgment.

The settlement came as a High Court trial was set to open into her claim that the Government had violated her human rights, exposing her to danger, by returning her to Moldova.

Mrs Justice Cox said the woman had suffered severe sexual degradation causing her psychiatric damage. She was very vulnerable and remained at risk of serious harm because police had been unable to arrest the traffickers.

The woman cannot be named for legal reasons. But her solicitor, Harriet Wistrich, said she had been kidnapped at age 14 and treated like a slave until 21. She was forced into prostitution in Italy, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Israel and the UK, repeatedly beaten, raped and threatened with death.

In 2003, she was arrested in a London brothel and charged with possessing the false documents given to her by her traffickers. She was imprisoned for three months, then sent to Moldova.The lawyer said that the trafficker intimidated her when allowed to visit her in Holloway prison and Oakington detention centre, where he posed as her boyfriend.

In Moldova she was found and savagely ill-treated before being retrafficked for another two years.

"In 2007, after she had again been retrafficked to the UK, she was arrested and detained before being referred to the Poppy project, which provided her with the support that led to her being granted refugee status.