Romanian couple jailed for forcing women into prostitution after police storm brothel in east London

Romanian husband and wife brothel bosses are jailed for forcing women into prostitution including one they made have sex with 15 men a night for £20 a week

  • Nicusor and Rodica Gheorghe recruited 10 foreign women to work as prostitutes
  • The Romanian couple ran a brothel in Barking, east London, from 2010 to 2019
  • Police raided the building and found multiple women locked up in one room 
  • The couple funnelled £150,000 of their illicit gains into investments in Romania

A husband and wife team who ‘callously and cynically exploited’ vulnerable women to run their lucrative sex-trafficking racket have been jailed.

Romanian nationals Nicusor and Rodica Gheorghe recruited 10 women, some as young as 18, and took them to England where they were forced to have sex with multiple men each night.

The pair – who are now divorced – operated a brothel in Barking, east London, from 2010 until 2019 when police stormed their building and discovered multiple women locked in one room.

The Gheorghes were convicted by jurors following a five-week trial in which the defendants refused to give evidence in their defence.

Sentencing the pair at Southwark Crown Court on Friday afternoon, Judge Andrew Goymer said: ‘During this trial, the jury and I heard evidence from 10 Romanian women who were driven into prostitution – it was not the lifestyle of choice.

Romanian national Rodica Gheorghe (pictured), 33, was convicted of two counts of human trafficking, eight counts of controlling prostitution for gain and one count of money laundering – landing her with a five-year prison sentence

‘It was a sad and sordid tale of degradation and exploitation.

‘Those women were being callously and cynically exploited, treated as a commodity, treated like vehicles or machinery to be hired out.’

Nicusor, 34, was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of two counts of rape, nine counts of trafficking, 10 counts of controlling prostitution for gain, and one count of money laundering.

Mother-of-two Rodica, 33, who the judge said played a lesser role in the offending, was jailed for five years after being convicted of two counts of human trafficking, eight counts of controlling prostitution for gain, and one count of money laundering.

The judge commended the victims and the officers in the ‘difficult and distressing’ case.

One of the victims was a family friend lured to the UK by the Gheorghes on the pretext of waitress work.

She then spent four years as a prostitute, police said, having sex with up to 15 men in one evening for which she was paid £20 a week.

Nicusor also raped the woman, police said, threatening to tell her family she was a prostitute if the victim did not do as she was told.

She only escaped after confiding in a member of the public who helped her return to Romania.

Another woman told police she had to work every day between 2pm and 6am, and was expected to pay more than £1,000 a week to the Gheorghes for advertising costs, food and rent.

Nicusor, 34, was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of two counts of rape, nine counts of trafficking, 10 counts of controlling prostitution for gain, and one count of money laundering

Nicusor, 34, was jailed for 15 years after being convicted of two counts of rape, nine counts of trafficking, 10 counts of controlling prostitution for gain, and one count of money laundering

If the women fell asleep during their hours of work, they were fined £50 by the Gheorghes, police said.

Detective Sergeant Chris Weatherstone from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, one of those commended by the judge, said: ‘This lengthy and complex investigation over several years has dismantled an organised crime group who were exploiting women in London for their own financial gain.

‘Anyone considering exploiting other human beings for financial gain should expect to face the same level of expert investigation and prosecution.’

Police said investigations showed the duo transferred more than £150,000 out of the UK during the offending period, obtained from the sexual exploitation of others, to build property and buy businesses in Romania.

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