A trio have been have been jailed after trafficking women and young girls into prostitution in the UK.

Romelia Radu, 32, Petre Niculescu, 39, and George Maracineanu, 47, deceived women into moving to the UK with the promise of work, before forcing them into prostitution in the Paddington area with threats and blackmail.

One victim, who was just 14 at the time and came from a poor family, was forced to have sex with up to 15 men a night by Niculescu and Radu with threats of violence to her and her family in Romania.

All three were sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on Friday May 12 after pleading guilty to trafficking and prostitution offences at an earlier hearing on March 16.

Romelia Radu was jailed for 14 years

Radu and Niculescu, who were a couple living in the UK at no fixed abode, collected money from a network of prostitutes.

The trio were each sentenced to a total of 14 years’ imprisonment.

Maracineanu, who lived in Basildon, Essex, and drove people within the UK was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.

In August 2015, a 41-year-old Romanian woman was recruited by an organised criminal network who enticed her to the UK with the promise of legitimate work in a restaurant in London.

When she arrived in the UK, the promise of work failed to materialise and she was put to work as a street prostitute in the Sussex Gardens area of Paddington where she worked seven days a week.

George Maracineanu drove the victims into the UK

The victim, who spoke little English, was forced to have sex with up to 10 men per night, either on the street, in flats or hotels in the vicinity.

She also had her identification card taken by her traffickers.

Any monies paid to the victim for her services as a prostitute were kept by the defendants and if she had contact with the police she was instructed by the defendants to lie about her identity and her circumstances.

After three weeks in London, she managed to escape and sought help from a London-based charity who supported her through the process of reporting her ordeal to police.

The victim was then taken to a place of safety and was supported by police officers who are specially trained to deal with highly vulnerable victims of modern slavery.

She worked with a number of other young women and they lived at a variety of addresses provided by the criminal network.

The trio were arrested after a joint investigation team was set up with police working with Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and authorities in Romania.

Petre Niculescu will also jailed for 14 years

They were arrested on separate dates in 2016, and at a Kingston Crown Court hearing on March 16, all three defendants entered guilty pleas.

Detective Inspector Steve Kiely of the Met’s Modern Slavery and Kidnap Unit said: “The victims were made more vulnerable by their unprivileged lifestyles within their own countries.

“They were young and naïve and, in most cases, easily seduced by the promise of a better life.

“These are all factors that contributed to the traffickers’ ability to exploit them.”

Damaris Lakin, a prosecutor in the CPS’s London Complex Casework Unit, said: “All three suspects initially denied controlling these women and girls for prostitution.

“The bravery of these women in providing evidence and supporting this prosecution has helped stop a dangerous criminal network taking advantage of vulnerable young girls.

“The CPS is committed to continuing to work together with police and other authorities both in the UK and abroad to stamp out trafficking, slavery and exploitation and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Radu and Niculescu jointly admitted five counts of conspiracy to traffic persons into and within the UK for the purpose of sexual exploitation, conspiracy to control prostitution for gain, and two counts relating to child prostitution.

Maracineanu admitted four counts of conspiracy to traffic persons within the UK for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and one count of conspiracy to cause prostitution for gain.

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!