Joshua led the prosecution team in this two week trial involving the targeting and trafficking of a vulnerable Romanian family to Birmingham. The family were kept apart as the Defendants put the one of them to work as a prostitute in a flat in a city centre flat. The court heard how death threats were issued to keep them enslaved and the family’s ordeal was discovered after their successful escape to New Street Station.
The case was rare because it involved various international authorities and NGOs in a bid to track down the victim who had disappeared following her repatriation to Romania ahead of the trial. Joshua succeeded in a day-long hearsay argument which ultimately led to this successful ‘victimless’ prosecution.
The phone evidence heard by the jury demonstrated that the defendants were established brother keepers and were involved in the advertisement of sexual services for many girls under their control. Indeed, their reach extended as far as Calais when it came to recruiting others into their enterprise.
The pair were convicted of offences contrary to section 1 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and keeping a brothel. They each received a sentence of 10 years’s custody
