Sex slavery gang members jailed

Their victims were duped in to coming to the UK, held captive and threatened with brutal punishments if they did not "entertain" dozens of men a week.

One Latvian girl was viciously beaten and held as a sex slave for a year before escaping on her 17th birthday.

At Southwark Crown Court the gang, from Lithuania, China and the UK, admitted controlling prostitution for gain.

'Highly profitable

The court heard the girls brought them in as much as £5,000 a day.

Detectives who had been investigating the gang were tipped-off to the fact girls were being held as sex slaves when a Latvian girl escaped and contacted the police.

She had been advertised on a website as "European Angel," and was beaten viciously over the period of a year, during which she was sold to men for a minimum of £150.

The girl escaped in October 2006, when she was moved to a pub in Wolverhampton whose first floor had been turned into a brothel.

Sentencing, judge Peter Testar said: "This case is all about highly organised and profitable prostitution and concerns very largely, if not exclusively the procurement of women from the Baltic states...to Chinese men."

Judge Testar described how the Latvian girl was sold to the gang as soon as she set foot in Britain, kitted out with "revealing" clothes, and left with no means of escape.

The court heard that when she plucked up the courage to ask to leave, the gang "threatened to cut her legs off".

International gang

Lithuanian national Mantas Dumasius, 22, of Chapter Way, Wimbledon, south-west London was given 13 years.

Fellow countryman Grazuydas Ruaitis, 24, of Troy Court, High Street, Kensington, west London, was sentenced to seven years.

Also sentenced were Chinese nationals Yaokang Huang, 27, of Keats Avenue, Woolwich, south-east London who was given two years, and Karrong Jiang, 26, of Westbourne Terrace, Westminster who was sentenced to five years.

British national Edward Hui, 34, of Woolwich Church Street, Woolwich, who owned the London brothels, was sentenced to six years.

Two other Lithuanian men, Petra Aleknavicius, 24, Walfrey Gardens, Dagenham, Essex, and Virginijus Suchodolskis, 32, of Abbey Mills, Wimbledon, will be sentenced later.

Both admitted controlling prostitution while Suchodolskis also pleaded guilty to false imprisonment.

Members of the gang also pleaded guilty a number of other charges.

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