A teenager was transported from Romania to a Kirkcaldy flat and forced into prostitution by an abuser who later attacked her in an apparent rape attempt.
The then-18-year-old said she thought she was brought to Scotland by Octav-George Dimitru for bar work in 2019 but was instead sold for sex.
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard she ended up having sex with about 20 men for money before she could alert police from the flat in Pratt Street.
Dimitru, 27, stood trial last week on charges relating to human trafficking and prostitution.
Speaking by video link from a court in Spain, the woman said it was weeks after her ordeal began she finally managed to dial 999 from under a duvet after Dimitru and another man “tried to rape” her.
The woman, aided in court by a Romanian interpreter, said she had gone for a nap after cleaning and cooking for Dimitru a few hours earlier.
“I sat on the bed, the two of them were naked, they entered my bedroom.
“Then one of them started to pull my legs and the other one took my arms”.
The woman said they told her not to scream and struggle so the neighbours would not hear, adding: “While I was struggling I started to cry”.
She recalled the men saying “gang bang” to her and that she “started to shake” and was “scared”.
She waited a couple of hours for Dimitru to go to sleep and phoned police shortly before 6am on the morning of September 20 2019.
One of four responding officers, PC Danielle Carroll, said the woman told her in a bedroom in the flat she had been brought to the country by Dimitru with the belief she would be doing cooking or waitressing but was “used to have sex for money”.
PC Carroll said: “She was a bit tearful.
“I suppose she was scared of the male in the property”.
She told PC Carroll about the assault and said she was “crying to the point they stopped and left her”.
Police searched the flat and found a storage unit in a bedroom with large quantities of condoms, lubricant and wet wipes.
DC Mark Farrell also recalled the woman saying she had been “forced into prostitution” and Dimitru was taken to custody on suspicion of human trafficking.
Forced into sex to pay ‘debt’
The woman, now 23, told the trial arrangements were made with Dimitru in early September 2019 to go to the UK on the understanding she would be doing bar work.
She recalled travelling by coach and was picked up in a car in England and driven to Scotland.
She was then told she would be prostituted and Dimitru said they were “going to make lots of money”.
When she refused, he told her she had no choice as she had a debt for travel and food.
Asked by prosecutor Ronnie Hay how she was introduced to prostitution, the woman said she was told by Dimitru she had 15 minutes before a customer was arriving.
An online profile was made for her under a false name.
She said there were times when customers paid extra not to use a condom and she had to present herself to clients as cheery but felt “disgusted”.
She said she gave the money to Dimitru, who kept it.
The woman said she did not feel she could use her phone to contact police or her family sooner because Dimitru was staying with her “all the time”.
She said: “There were times they were present even when I was taking a shower.”
He ordered that she tell friends and family in Romania she was working as a babysitter.
Filmed transaction
The trial also heard the woman had filmed herself interacting with a customer, who himself gave evidence in court and acknowledged he had been to the Pratt Street address and paid about £70 for sex.
Jurors were shown a four-minute video clip of an apparent transaction between the man and woman, wearing white lingerie, and them lying on a bed together.
The woman said she recorded it to see “how I looked when I was doing this work”.
The property’s landlord said in a police statement Dimitru had paid rent in cash
At one point the landlord told police: “I remember about a month ago I was talking to ‘George’ outside the flat.
“He was talking about his girlfriend.
“He then asked if I wanted any girls and I said ‘no, I am married’ but George said I was to let him know if I wanted a girl.
“I never spoke to him again about it.
“I thought he was joking so never asked anything of it”.
Guilty
Dimitru, also aided by a Romanian interpreter in court, denied offending and claimed he was staying at the flat while looking for work in the area.
He said he was unaware the woman was working as a prostitute and would have “strongly disagreed” with this and was “shocked” when police arrived.
He claimed she had travelled with him by bus from Romania to the UK after a supposed boyfriend who would soon be joining her to take over the tenancy, had paid for her ticket.
Dimitru, who has recently been living in Rugby, England, was convicted by a jury of two charges following the four-day trial.
As the occupier of the address in Kirkcaldy, he knowingly permitted it to be used for the purposes of habitual prostitution in September 2019.
The offence was aggravated by a connection with human trafficking activity.
Dimitru was also found guilty of assault with intent to rape and placed on the sex offenders register.
Sheriff James Williamson ordered background reports and remanded him in custody ahead of sentencing on August 7.
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