Meridian Human Trafficking

A man and a woman, who smuggled four people into the UK from France, have started a combined 6 years prison sentence for their crimes.

They were sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court after being found guilty of trafficking three adults and a child from Calais to Dover.

They are:

· Didier Andre Robert Devos, 36 and unemployed of no fixed abode in France. He was given 4 years jail.

· Sandra Mirelle Evelyn Vienot, 28 of Grande-Synthe, Dunkerque, in northern France was given 2 years jail.

On Monday 30 June 2014 just after 4pm a French registered Renault was intercepted at Dover Eastern Docks. The male driver and his female passenger had just arrived on a Calais to Dover ferry. They claimed to be visiting the local area and would be returning to France later that evening.

When border officers based at Dover Eastern Docks searched the car they found two men, a woman and a child in the boot. They all indicated that they were from Afghanistan. The four illegal entrants were transferred to the Dover Asylum Screening Centre (DASC) at Dover Eastern Docks where it was confirmed that three of the nationals were from the same family - 28 year old mother, 30 year old father and seven year old daughter. The other man was 55.

A three day campaign to raise awareness about human trafficking is underway in Chatham. Campaigner Melissa Nelson says it's a growing problem in the Medway Towns, and is urging people to look out for warning signs that it could be happening in homes near them.

Protesters took to the streets of Oxford today to highlight the horrors of human trafficking and child exploitation.

It happened on the day the Government announced a crackdown on the perpetrators.

It's a crime that has rocked the city in recent months following the Operation Bullfinch case. That lead to seven men being jailed for abusing girls as young as 11.

The group Oxford Community Against Trafficking is calling on people to open their eyes to the problem as Heather Edwards reports.

VIDEO: He used witchcraft to terrify his young victims, and lure them into the sex trade. Today, Oswaya Osallasee from Kent was jailed for 20 years for trafficking, rape, and sex with a child. From Canterbury Crown Court, Derek Johnson reports.

A sex trafficker from Kent who used witchcraft rituals to silence young girls smuggled into Britain to be sold as prostitutes has been jailed for 20 years.

Osezua Osolase, 42, 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 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.

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, that he was "devoid of conscience, devoid of compassion to your victims".

A Kent man, found guilty of seven charges relating to the human trafficking of three young Nigerian girls, has been sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

42 year old Osezua Osolase was convicted by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court, following a six week trial, on Friday.

The three girls were all trafficked out of the country and into Europe for prostitution.

He used black magic - keeping his young victims prisoner - and scaring them into silence. Today, though, a man from Kent was jailed for forcing children into prostitution.

Police told Meridian this afternoon that the scale of Osezua Osolase's trafficking was only just becoming apparent - and that dozens of girls could have suffered at his hands.

Police believe Osezua Osolase from Kent may have forced as many as 28 girls into prostitution by masterminding a sex trafficking ring involving flights to Europe, false passports and African Ju Ju magic.

Former security guard Osolase was convicted by a jury at Canterbury Crown Court of trafficking and also of rape and sexual assault of teenage girls from Nigeria. He will be sentenced on Monday October 29. A senior detective described him as ''evil.''

Two people arrested following an investigation into the alleged exploitation of Lithuanian workers have been released on police bail, as enquiries continue.

The 52-year-old man and a woman aged 50 from the Maidstone area were arrested at a property in the town on Friday.

Allegations had been made that workers were being forced to live in squalid conditions and threatened with violence if they did not comply with their supervisor’s instructions.

At least 29 men were identified as potentially being victims of human trafficking and they were referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) - a framework for identifying victims of human trafficking.