"Iyamu exploited five vulnerable women by promising them a better life in Europe. Instead she treated the women like property"
By Umberto Bacchi
LONDON, June 28 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A nurse known as "Madame Sandra" was found guilty on Thursday of submitting five Nigerians to black magic rituals then forcing them into European sex work in a landmark British slavery case.
A jury at Birmingham Crown Court in central England found Josephine Iyamu, 51, guilty of modern slavery and perverting the course of justice, prosecutors said.
The case marked the first successful prosecution of a Briton for slavery offences committed outside the country and was a test of the country's tough anti-trafficking laws, passed in 2015 to crack down on the modern human slave trade.
"Iyamu exploited five vulnerable women by promising them a better life in Europe. Instead she treated the women like property," Andy Young of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which prosecutes criminal cases, said in a statement.
The court heard how Iyamu masterminded a trafficking scheme that began with voodoo ceremonies in west Africa and ended in brothels in mainland Europe.
Proceeds from the crime funded a lifestyle well beyond Iyamu's moderate income, said Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA), noting that the nurse travelled frequently to Europe and owned a large house with servant's quarters in Nigeria.
Iyamu, who denied the accusations, will be sentenced in July.
PAID PASSAGE
Iyamu arranged travel from Nigeria to Europe for five women, charging up to 38,000 euros ($44,000) for the journey, and then made them work in brothels to repay the debt, the court heard.
The women were made to undergo a black magic ritual known as "juju", in which they pledged not to run away or inform police.
During the ceremony - performed by a voodoo priest - the women were made to drink blood mixed with worms, eat a chicken heart and had black powder rubbed inside fresh wounds, according to NCA, a law enforcement agency dealing with organised crime.
"With zero regard for their safety and well being, she (Iyamu) sent them via dangerous routes to Germany and forced them to work in brothels to fund her own lifestyle," said NCA operations manager Kay Mellor.
Iyamu was arrested as she flew into London last August after police were tipped off by a brothel owner in Germany, who suspected one of the women was on a fake passport.
Britain passed tough anti-slavery legislation in 2015 introducing life sentences for traffickers and allowed for British nationals to be tried for trafficking offences regardless of where they took place.
Women's rights group Equality Now said the verdict sent a strong message that human trafficking was unacceptable.
"We hope a successful conviction will lead to more perpetrators being arrested and prosecuted," Tsitsi Matekaire, who manages the charity's End Sex Trafficking programme, said.
Thousands of Nigerian women and girls are lured to Europe each year, made to perform 'juju' rituals then forced into sex work in Italy, according to the United Nations.
The rituals leave victims fearing that relatives will fall ill or die if they disobey their traffickers.
In March, Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency welcomed an order by a leading traditional ruler that revoked voodoo curses saying the move should sharply reduce the number of people being trafficked to Europe.
($1 = 0.8647 euros) (Reporting by Umberto Bacchi @UmbertoBacchi, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths.
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