Model, 20, forced to become a sex slave at £120-an-hour brothel for 10 years after being tricked by gang
On only her second day in the UK, Helena was given drugs to relax her, while criminals took seductive images of her
A WOMAN has told how she was tricked into coming to the UK to fulfil her dream of modelling - only to be forced into sex slavery for a DECADE.
Helena - identified only by her first name - was living in rural Romania when a family acquaintance offered her a glamorous career when she was just 20 years old.
She was then tricked into working in a pop-up brothel and warned if she didn't follow orders her family would be killed.
Every night, she would be forced to have sex with multiple strangers who would pay £120 an hour -which was quickly pocketed by her gangland bosses.
She told the Daily Star Sunday how the man had convinced her she had a shot in London, and even bought her a plane ticket.
She arrived in the capital, and was immediately put up in a flat with three other girls.
The very next day her handlers had her pose for sexy bikini and underwear shots, and she was immediately uncomfortable.
It was the beginning of 10 years of hell.
"I was really nervous. I didn't expect that at all. I went back to the guy and I told him I wasn't feeling comfortable.
The man gave her a pill, and said it would make her feel better.
Helena, scared and naive, took it.
It was only after the shoot that the men said Helena owed them 1,000 euros for the flat, 2000 for the portfolio pictures, and 500 a month for rent of the flat.
The pictures never made it to a portfolio, but were immediately put online on a prostitution website.
A list of sex acts, and the price of each, was printed alongside them.
The men told her she could work off her mounting bills giving massages to men.
Her passport was taken, to be returned when she had worked off the debt.
On her first night of work she was given a white powder to sniff, which would make her feel relaxed.
Her first client had sex with her while she was intoxicated.
When she said she wouldn't sleep with another man, the threats began.
"They said if I didn't do what they said and pay off my debt they would kill all of my family in Romania."
She became hooked on cocaine, the Star reports, with the £80 a day habit only feeding her debt to the gang, who charged for everything, including toiletries.
Her clients - mostly Brits - were paying up to 150 euros for some services.
She was only saved when a client with underworld links came to her aid.
How modern slavery has risen TENFOLD in Britain
It's estimated the number of suspected victims of trafficking and modern slavery in Britain has risen tenfold from 13,000 in 2013 to 136,000 in 2018.
Last year, the National Crime Agency says there were 5,145 cases reported in the UK – the highest on record – and 41 per cent involved children under 18.
Thousands of victims are trafficked into slavery in the UK and kept hidden in plain sight.
They often work seven days a week for little or no pay in nail salons, car washes, building sites, kitchens, factories and farms.
However, others are forcifly recruited into the sex industry - where their bodies are sold day in, day out.
They are trapped, abused and exploited, with no hope of returning home to their loved ones.
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Her Romanian captors let her go - another young Romanian woman's life destroyed by gangs which control roughly 30 per cent of the brothels in the country.
Helena recalled how her ordeal started: "Someone who knew our family told me I was pretty and could make it in the modelling world.
"He said there was no chance I could do it in Romania but that he could use his connections to get me a modelling contract in England.
"I was only 20 and I didn’t want to be struggling or to see my family struggle, so I jumped at the chance.
"I thought it was a chance to start a new life."
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