Page last updated at 17:17 GMT, Thursday, 4 June 2009 18:17 UK

Family jailed for sex trafficking

By Dan Bell
BBC News

Istvan Kalocsai Snr, Istvanne Kalocsai, Istvan Kalocsai Jnr
Istvan Kalocsai, Istvanne Kalocsai and Istvan Kalocsai Jnr were all jailed

Three members of a Hungarian family have been jailed for trafficking women to the UK for sexual exploitation, by an Inner London Crown Court judge.

Istvan Kalocsai, 42, and his son Istvan, 19, were jailed for six-and-a-half and five years respectively for sex trafficking offences.

Istvan's wife Istvanne, 39, got three years for controlling prostitution. All three lived in Barking in Essex.

Police said they had exploited "another human being in the most horrible way".

The family were arrested after a young Hungarian woman was found cowering in the toilets of London City Airport, the court had heard.

Tricked and beaten

They tricked her into leaving her village home and forced her into prostitution with threats and beatings.

A second son, Gabor Kalocsai, 22, is still on the run from police and believed to be in Hungary.

In May 2008 a cleaner found the young woman, who was in her early 20s, unable to speak English, with no passport or baggage, and begging to be flown back to Hungary.

Police first thought she had been robbed, but after speaking to her via a translator, it became clear she had been trafficked into the UK and forced to work as a prostitute.

She originally came from a remote village in Hungary and was told she could have an all-expenses paid trip to Britain, where she would then work legitimately to pay back the cost of her trip.

Home Office research suggests that at any one time about 4,000 people are in the UK who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation
Since 2003, there have been more than 100 convictions for sex trafficking
From October 2006 to March 2007, there were 406 arrests by 43 police forces for sex trafficking
Women who are trafficked are often offered the promise of a better life through legitimate work
Authorities say there is no 'typical' victim and no 'typical' trafficker
Source: UK Human Trafficking Centre

But no sooner had she been picked up by Istvan Kalocsai and his sons, than the three men began to threaten her, telling her she had been sold to them and "there is no going back now".

Terrified, she was driven through Germany and even forced into prostitution on the way to the UK, when the family sent her to have sex with lorry drivers, telling her she had to earn petrol money.

Once in the country the young woman was taken to the Kalocsai family home in Barking, Essex, where she was bought mini skirts and taught how to "walk like a working girl" by the family's mother.

The sons, Gabor and Istvan Jnr, would go out with the victim and negotiate fees with the clients before she would either take them back to a hotel address in Barking or a local park.

On several occasions she was beaten by the father and mother and was told that she had to earn £200 a day.

She believed that if she refused to work, she would be beaten until she did.

At first the young woman was not allowed out of the family's home unless it was to work or when she went shopping with the mother.

They sought to profit from the exploitation of another human being in the most horrible way
Det Con Mark Simpson

But after an incident where she was stopped by police for prostitution while she was with Gabor, the family members accompanied her less often.

After two months she finally escaped, following an incident where the mother threatened to kill one of her friends.

Det Con Mark Simpson, of the Metropolitan Police's Human Trafficking Team, said: "They sought to profit from the exploitation of another human being in the most horrible way.

"Through violence and intimidation they forced her to do things against her will and failed to honour any of her basic human rights."

At the Kalocsai's home police found that a second Hungarian woman had been living there while the family prostituted her at brothels in west London and over the internet.

The Metropolitan Police are working closely with the Hungarian human trafficking team in Budapest to find him.

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