Osezua Osolase, HIV Positive Nigerian Gets 20 Years For Raping Young Orphans He Smuggled Into Britain

An ‘evil’ Nigerian people smuggler who used witchcraft rituals to force terrified children to work as sex slaves has been jailed for 20 years.

Osezua Osolase, 42, who lived in Gravesend, Kent, preyed on poverty-stricken Nigerian orphans and tricked them into travelling to the UK with the promise of a better life.

But instead the Nigerian, who has HIV, treated the victims as 'commodities' to be used in a form of 'modern-day slavery' by attempting to send them on to mainland Europe to be sexually assaulted by gangs.

West African juju rituals were used to instil terror into Osolase’s three vulnerable victims, one aged just 14, who felt helpless because they feared retribution and had no-one to turn to.

Young victims were raped, sexually abused and subjected to voodoo-style rituals once in the clutches of the trafficking ring.

One girl had hair cut from her armpits by a man wearing feathers. Others were slashed with knives, forced to drink foul-smelling potions and had blood taken with syringes to ‘cast a spell’ over them.

The girls were told they would die or never bear children if they tried to escape or revealed what had happened to them.

At Canterbury Crown Court on Friday, he was found guilty of five counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation, and one each of rape and sexual activity with a child.

Sentencing him today, Judge Adele Williams told Osolase, a recycling worker from Beaumont Drive, Gravesend, Kent, that he was 'devoid of conscience, devoid of compassion to your victims'.

Osolase, who has HIV, showed no emotion as sentence was passed.


Caught on film: Osezua Osolase (in baseball cap) with young trafficking victims under surveillance at Stansted Airport. The children's faces have been obscured in order to protect their identities

Judge Williams told him he put his victims 'in fear' by using juju rituals to force their obedience and secure their silence.
 
She said he was responsible for a 'cruel deception' by promising the girls, one of whom lived under a bridge in Nigeria, a better standard of life in the UK.

The judge said: 'You were dealing in exploitation and manipulation and degradation. You have been convicted on clear and compelling evidence.'

She went on: 'I have seen and heard you give evidence and you are undoubtedly a very, very dishonest man. You are arrogant and manipulative, you are devoid of conscience, devoid of any compassion to your victims.'


Sentencing: Judge Adele Williams told Osolase, a recycling worker from Beaumont Drive, Gravesend, Kent, that he was 'devoid of conscience, devoid of compassion to your victims'

The judge said Osolase treated the girls as 'objects' to be sold as 'sex slaves'. And she said the fact that he raped one girl knowing he has HIV was a 'seriously aggravating' feature.

It was recommended that Osolase be deported once he has served his sentence.

Detectives revealed that one 16-year-old girl described how a juju ceremony performed on her in Nigeria involved her having samples of blood extracted.

Hair from her head and intimate parts were also cut and she was made to swear an oath of silence and smuggled into Britain before an unsuccessful attempt was made to farm her out to Italy.

Witchcraft rituals are sometimes used by Nigerian traffickers to force victims into obedience or compel them to pay back vast sums of money.


Osolase was convicted at Canterbury Crown Court of trafficking three girls aged 14, 16 and 17

A senior detective said Osolase corrupted the well-established belief of juju in an attempt to 'gain control and bend the wills' of his young victims.

During the six-week trial, Osolase, nicknamed 'Uncle', refused to admit trafficking the teenagers, forcing them to relive the crimes in front of a jury.

Some of the girls had travelled to Britain with dreams of gaining modelling work or a better education, but prosecutors said they instead endured 'heartless abuse' at every turn.

Police believe there were at least 25 suspected victims of the trafficking ring, which smuggled girls using fake passports and visas from Nigeria and into the UK and on to countries including Italy and Spain.

Investigators said the case was difficult to bring to court because human trafficking victims often fear retribution against themselves and their families back home.


On the surface: Osolase was a recycling worker living in a terraced house in Gravesend (High Street pictured)

Their experience of authorities in their home country often leaves them lacking confidence in the justice system but British officials said the girls were courageous in giving evidence.

Painstaking inquiries were conducted on a mass of data from pre-paid credit cards, email addresses, flight records and mobile phones to prove Osolase was involved in smuggling the girls to Britain.

He was stopped at Stansted Airport in Essex in April last year, leading inquiries by the UK Border

Agency to then be passed to the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate.

Investigations revealed that he was the prime suspect in multiple human trafficking offences where girls had been flown from Nigeria to the UK before being sent out to Europe.

In mitigation, Anthony Orchard QC, defending, said Osolase suffers from glaucoma, rendering him 90 percent blind in one eye.

He also said Osolase disclosed voluntarily to police that he had HIV , and that his German wife has stood by him throughout the trial process.

Mr Orchard said: 'Mr Osolase acknowledges and regrets the consequences of his actions in relation to taking the girls out of the UK, and he has to bear the consequences of those actions.'

Detective Inspector Eddie Fox said after the case that Osolase was ‘evil’ and branded him a ‘predatory paedophile’.

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