Two pimps who trafficked young Eastern European women for prostitution – plying them with ecstasy and cocaine and holding them to an £80,000 debt – have both been locked-up.
Punters were charged up to £200-a-time to have sex with the girls at exclusive West London addresses, leaving the duped victims feel “sick” and “disgusting.”
Sergey Konart, 41, (pic.top) received ten years and Ekaterina Kolesnikova, 26, (pic.bottom) received two-and-a-half years imprisonment after admitting trafficking and prostitution charges.
Southwark Crown Court heard officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command arrested the pair in December, last year.
Two addresses were searched in Chelsea; two in Bayswater and one in Earl’s Court, plus a Knightsbridge safety deposit box held by Konart.
The pair - part of a ruthless Russian-based organised criminal network - recruited vulnerable young women to come to the UK by promising them well-paid jobs as waitresses, shop assistants or dancers.
Once in the UK they took the girls’ ID’s, passports and travel documents and forced them to work as prostitutes to pay-off an £80,000 debt bond.
They were threatened with violence and plied with ecstasy and cocaine to gain compliance.
One victim said the work she was forced into made her “skin crawl” and made her feel “sick” because many of the clients were “disgusting”.
She “hated” her life and knew it was very harmful to her health and was having a large impact on her mental state.
Another victim stated: “I felt used and thrown away.”
Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland said: “Konart and Kolesnikova recruited vulnerable young women on the promise of well paid employment in the UK.
“On their arrival in London they were forced into prostitution in some of the capital’s exclusive areas.”
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