Meanwhile Nigerian-born UK caretaker accused of trafficking teens into prostitution

A Nigerian-born UK council caretaker trafficked girls as young as 14 into Britain to work as prostitutes after they had been put under a voodoo spell, a court heard Thursday.

 Anthony Harrison, 32, is alleged to have raped two girls in Britain after they had been subjected to an African black magic ritual by a people-smuggling gang.

The terrifying ceremony was performed in Nigeria by a Juju priest to trap the girls into a life of sex slavery, it was said.

 

During the ritual, a 16-year-old girl was taken to a shrine where she was stripped naked and slashed dozens of times with a razor, her blood placed in a coffin, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

 

Terrifying

In a terrifying ordeal, the girl's body hair was shaven off, her arms were bound behind her back and she was forced to lie naked and covered in blood in another coffin, jurors were told.

 

The victim also allegedly had to eat the raw heart of a freshly slaughtered chicken as part of the spell by the priest who told her that he had access to her soul and if she did not obey his commands he could ‘kill her from within'.

 

In another ritual, a 14-year-old girl was made to swear an oath of loyalty to a Juju medicine man who took her to a river and told her to eat some white clay.

 

Raw chicken's heart

The youngster was also instructed to wash with black soap and given a raw chicken's heart to eat, it was said.  The court heard that in Nigeria, where Juju is a greatly feared magic or medicine, the ceremonies ensure they would be too frightened to go to police.

 

The girls were later flown to Britain in 2009 on false documents where Harrison is alleged to have raped them before trying to pass them on to sex traffickers in Spain and Greece.

 

Sophisticated network

Riel Karmy-Jones, prosecuting, said: "Anthony Harrison is, we suggest, a key player in what is undoubtedly a sophisticated and organised criminal network of West African people traffickers who have been operating in the UK."

 

Harrison, who led a double life as a caretaker for Newham Council in East London, allegedly had at least seven aliases. Police still do not know his real identity. He arrived in Britain from Nigeria in April 2003, falsely claiming to be a Liberian national. Although he was refused asylum he was later granted indefinite leave to remain.

 

Poor backgrounds

The court heard that the girls hailed from very poor backgrounds in Edo, Nigeria. The 14-year-old victim had been abandoned as a baby and was raised as a ‘domestic drudge' in a single-roomed hut, before being sold into prostitution.

 

The elder girl was brought up by her uncle who sexually abused her.

 

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones said: "The two young women concerned were little more than children when they were trafficked into this country."

 

She told jurors that the girls were just 14 and 16 when they were brought into the UK in 2009.  They were from small villages in Nigeria with limited education and little exposure to the outside world.

 

Both were from the Edo state where Juju black magic or medicine “exists side by side and in conjunction with other religions.”

 

Both were subjected to ceremonies involving this black magic and it has taken two years of painstaking work for police investigators to build up sufficient trust for the girls to open up about what happened to them.

 

Following the “grooming” the girls were sent to the UK on false documents and “into the hands” of the accused.  She said Harrison was “a key player in a sophisticated and organised criminal network for West African people traffickers who have been operating in the UK.”

 

They were allegedly ‘groomed' by their handlers and given ‘scripts' to tell UK immigration staff that they were claiming asylum, having been forced to flee their country because they were accused of being lesbians.

 

She said he kept the girls in his home in Albert Square, where he raped them before attempting to move them on to the continent.

 

Absconded

Under her handler's instructions, the 16-year-old absconded to meet Harrison, it was claimed.  Harrison is said to have threatened to kill her if she went to police. He allegedly forced her to sleep outside, starved her and plied her with alcohol before raping her. He is also accused of raping and beating her.

 

Harrison denies four counts of conspiracy to traffic people into and out of the UK for sexual exploitation; two counts each of false imprisonment and rape and four of conspiracy to facilitate breaches of immigration law.

 

The court heard he has admitted five counts of fraud by using false names to obtain employment, credit cards and telephones.

 

Prosecutor Karmy-Jones said Harrison arrived in the UK in April 2003 and although his asylum application and subsequent appeals were refused he was granted indefinite leave to remain. He was employed by the borough from August 2004 until his arrest last November, using the false name of Charles Pepple, one of seven aliases he has used at different times.

 

Police eventually tracked Harrison down using a jigsaw of evidence from the victims, financial and mobile phone records and CCTV footage, the court heard.

 

The trial continues.

 

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A Nigerian-born UK council caretaker trafficked girls as young as 14 into Britain to work as prostitutes after they had been put under a voodoo spell, a court heard Thursday.

 

Anthony Harrison, 32, is alleged to have raped two girls in Britain after they had been subjected to an African black magic ritual by a people-smuggling gang.

 

The terrifying ceremony was performed in Nigeria by a Juju priest to trap the girls into a life of sex slavery, it was said.

 

During the ritual, a 16-year-old girl was taken to a shrine where she was stripped naked and slashed dozens of times with a razor, her blood placed in a coffin, Woolwich Crown Court heard.

 

Terrifying

In a terrifying ordeal, the girl's body hair was shaven off, her arms were bound behind her back and she was forced to lie naked and covered in blood in another coffin, jurors were told.

 

The victim also allegedly had to eat the raw heart of a freshly slaughtered chicken as part of the spell by the priest who told her that he had access to her soul and if she did not obey his commands he could ‘kill her from within'.