Romanian traffickers jailed for kidnapping woman and forcing her into sex work
18 September 2024, 22:32
A man and woman have been jailed for a combined 16 years for kidnapping a Romanian woman in Manchester and forcing her to work as a prostitute in Cheetham Hill.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Jean-Marinel Mihai has been jailed for 10 years and Florentin Urmez has been jailed for six.
During that time the victim was subjected to violence, control, coercion and forced to hand over all her earnings.
On Monday 2 March 2020, the victim, who was being forced into sex work at the time, was on Broughton Street, Manchester. She was approached by a vehicle, when a woman by the name of Florentina Urmuz, 27, got out and violently assaulted her. She was then coerced into the car, which quickly left the scene, and set off to Derby.
Manchester Crown Court heard how the victim's exploitation began in Bucharest, Romania almost thirteen years earlier, when she had met Urmuz’s mother. She was offered a place to stay, but she was treated as a slave. She was forced to do housework and sex work and made to give the family all her earnings.
The victim was subjected to years of physical and emotional abuse by Urmuz and her family. She was later moved to Craiova, Romania, with Urmuz, which is where she met the other defendant Jean Marinel Mihai, 29, the boyfriend of Urmuz at the time.
Read more: Stop obsessing over officer numbers, Met chief pleads as he says budget ‘heading off a cliff’
In December 2018, the victim was brought to the UK by Mihai, flying into Liverpool with the promise of a better life. Mihai used a number of methods to conceal the fact that they were known to one another, in order to avoid raising suspicions of airport staff. Upon arrival, she was placed in a guest house and put to work as a sex worker in the Cheetham Hill and Strangeways areas.
Mihai took any money that the victim earned and violently assaulted her on a number of occasions.
After the kidnapping, Florentina Urmuz heard that police were looking for the victim, so the following day, the victim and Urmuz attended Central Park police station in an attempt to prove she was safe, but this was just a guise. Urmuz was arrested, and during the interview, she categorically denied her involvement in the kidnap, stating her intentions were to help the victim leave sex work behind.
She denied the assault and claimed that what the CCTV depicted was all a ploy which would enable the victim to escape.
Inspector Tony Platten the Senior Investigating Officer of this case said: “I would like to commend the survivor for her incredible strength throughout this entire process, and for trusting us and our partners to get justice.
“She endured years of abuse and coercion by this group, forced to live in unimaginable conditions for so much of her life. They took extraordinary measures to conceal their illicit operation, but I am glad today to see that they will now face a considerable time behind bars, before they will be deported by our immigration colleagues.
“It is only through support of partners like MASH and Justice and Care that the survivor has had the opportunity to be supported and rebuild her life, which had been taken from her for so many years.“In cases like this, we have seen victims threatened and suffering extreme violence as the criminals exert control. This is why tackling modern slavery is a high priority for Greater Manchester Police and dedicated partners who are embedded into our teams to ensure victims receive the very best care and support available and are safeguarded throughout.
“Modern slavery is happening right here in Manchester. We need the public and professionals to be aware of the signs to look out for and report any concerns.”
During the sentencing hearing the court heard how she had become a sex worker at the age of 17 after leaving her home in Romania and ending up on the streets of Bucharest. It was here she was groomed by Florentina Urmuz's mother. She told the court how she lived with her for 12 years, was was made to work as a sex worker, was beaten and made to hand over all her money. She was passed around by members of this trafficking gang and came to the UK thinking her life would be better than in Romania, only for the exploitation to continue.
A victim impact statement was read out on behalf of the victim. She told the court how the strongest impact was she was prevented from becoming a mother as a result of this abuse. She had no choice but to work for the pair, that she would get 50-60 pounds a time and sometimes see 10 clients a day, but that she never got to keep the money, instead having to send it to Mihai. She said people wouldn't choose her because she didn't have any teeth and that left her feeling "like a monster".
She told the court how she became pregnant while working as a prostitute and Mihai said she had to keep working. She recounted the day she was abducted; "I remember it clearly, I refused to get in the car because I knew I’d be forced to return to the streets." She added: "I’m still scared, I cry in my sleep, constantly looking back, people look at me because I’m acting strangely. I struggle to interact with anyone, especially men. All Romanians made me suspicious, but I think now I have the courage to fight for my life to the end."
In court, Mihai admitted he controlled the victim for the purposes of sexual exploitation, telling the court he had received somewhere in the region of £20,000 - £40,000 from her in earnings, sometimes in cash and sometimes via bank transfer.
