A 38-year-old Nigerian woman identified as Franca Asemota, who allegedly forced trafficked teenage orphans into sex trade in Europe has been dragged to court.
Asemota, popularly called Auntie Franca, was alleged to have used the threat of witchcraft to lure her victims, at least 40 children and young adults into Europe for prostitution.
Dailymail had earlier reported that investigators spent around three years trying to locate Asemota until they successfully traced her to Nigeria on March 25, 2015, and she was arrested and extradited.
They reportedly located her after two girls, who had been placed with foster parents in 2012 in Worthing, West Sussex by immigration authorities, were kidnapped.
Asemota lured the girls – who were as young as 14 and mainly orphans from remote Nigerian villages – with promises of jobs and education. She then allegedly used witchcraft, threats and violence to force them into the European sex trade.
A Jury at Isleworth Crown Court on Wednesday convicted Asemota of eight counts of conspiracy by trafficking people into sexual exploitation.
They also found her guilty of two counts of trafficking a person out of the UK for sexual exploitation and two counts of assisting unlawful immigration to an EU member state.
The report stated that Asemota, of no fixed address, will be sentenced later this month.
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