Fred and Rosemary West's former home 'used by sex traffickers

Three people have been charged with conspiracy to traffic women into prostitution in the UK as part of a suspected vice ring that operated from addresses including the former Gloucester home of serial killers Fred and Rosemary West.

Simultaneous raids in Gloucester, south London and Bradford followed an investigation by the Metropolitan police's human exploitation and organised crime command and Czech authorities into a suspected organised prostitution ring, which saw women trafficked into the UK and forced into prostitution and sham marriages. A further three people were arrested in the Czech Republic.

Members of the alleged gang are suspected of using the rundown white two-storey Midland Road house where Rosemary West murdered her husband's stepdaughter Charmaine in 1971 and buried her beneath the kitchen floor. Her remains were not exhumed until 23 years later after the Wests were arrested over 11 more murders at their nearby Cromwell Road home which was subsequently demolished.

The Midland Road house was the Wests' first married home after a period living in a caravan. Charmaine and Anne Marie, Fred West's daughter by his previous wife Rena, went to live there in 1970.

Ludmila Nistorova, 52, of Raglan Court in Gloucester appeared at Cheltenham magistrates court on Friday. She is charged with conspiracy to traffic into the UK as well as conspiracy to traffic within the UK for exploitation and sexual exploitation, conspiracy to control prostitution for gain and conspiracy to "facilitate commission of a breach of UK immigration law". She was remanded in custody to appear at Southwark crown court in London on Wednesday.

Votjech Virag, a 25-year-old man, and Iveta Viragova, a 43-year-old woman, were arrested at an address in Nutwell Street, Tooting, south London and appeared at Westminster magistrates court on the same five charges. They were also remanded in custody to appear alongside Nistorova in court next week.

The three men arrested in the Czech Republic, aged 35, 28 and 41, are currently subject to extradition proceedings.

All three have been remanded in custody to appear in court next week.

 

Customer wants prostitutes prosecuted

It was a matter of routine for the 63-year-old man. Every payday, he secured the services of a local prostitute, and every time she stole from him once he fell asleep.

On July 1, however, the man apparently took a stand after hiring three prostitutes and waking to find about $90 missing, according to a recently released Fort Pierce police report.

"(He) said he felt he had to report the theft because he felt they would keep stealing from him and other customers if he had not reported the incident," the report states.

The case began about 11:35 p.m. when an officer was dispatched to an address in the 400 block of North 23rd Street and spoke to the man.

"(He) said he routinely hired a female prostitute every payday, but tried to get a different one every time for the sake of variety and adventure," the report states. "(He) stated he located three harlots on the corner of North 23rd Street and Avenue D, which he found convenient since they were mere feet from his residence."

He said he paid each woman about $20 for "various salacious acts." Details of the acts weren't "discussed in depth at the time of the initial investigation since it was not germane to the reported offense."

The man said after the "performance" he gave the prostitutes "a cash gratuity for service excellence" and started snoozing. When he woke about 11:30 p.m. he noticed about $90 stolen from his trousers.

The man didn't know the prostitutes' names, but said they sported short skirts, were in their 30s and were between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall.

With enthusiasm, the man said each payday he brought hookers to his apartment, saying they stole from him once he fell asleep. He said that the week prior a prostitute absconded with $200 -- on top of her fee -- from his pants as he slept.

He said he thought he must report the theft lest the ladies continue stealing from him and other patrons.

"(He) did state that he felt he was at least partially at fault because he was '64 years old' (actually (he) was 63) and could not resist having been tempted by what he described as 'the girls in the short skirts,'" the report states.

 

pimps and prostitutes of Yeongdeungpo start the day as if preparing for a siege, stocking their brothels with flammable liquid and gas containers. Large, red-lettered signs warn police that they're willing to die to protect their livelihoods.

The pimps and prostitutes of Yeongdeungpo start the day as if preparing for a siege, stocking their brothels with flammable liquid and gas containers. Large, red-lettered signs warn police that they're willing to die to protect their livelihoods.
"We can turn on the gas and light the flames," said a 47-year-old pimp who would only give her surname Sohn. "We know that we don't have much chance of winning ... but we're ready to die fighting."
Nearly seven years after tough laws began driving thousands of South Korean prostitutes out of business, the sex workers of the Yeongdeungpo red-light district in Seoul are fighting back, spurred by what they say is an unprecedented campaign of police harassment.
Since April they've staged large, sometimes violent, protests that provide a glimpse of the tensions in this fast-changing country as ambitious urban redevelopment projects encroach on old neighborhoods once known for their nightlife.
Rallies by sex workers against police crackdowns crop up occasionally in South Korea, but the protests in Yeongdeungpo — which have drawn hundreds of other prostitutes, pimps and supporters — have been unusual in their size, organization and fury.
The district's 40 to 50 prostitutes describe their fight in life-and-death terms. At a recent protest, about 20 topless women covered in body and face paint doused themselves in flammable liquid and had to be restrained from setting themselves on fire.
'Die gloriously'
The demonstrations come as new building projects around the country threaten gritty neighborhoods that are home to aging bars, street food stalls and brothels. If the prostitutes in Yeongdeungpo lose their jobs, they could struggle to find work elsewhere.




"We are the people who eat, sleep and live here. Where can we move?" prostitute Jang Se-hee said in an interview inside a large tent where sex workers were discussing how to resist police.
The 36-year-old Jang, who wore big sunglasses with plum-colored lenses, her hair tied up in a bun, said her earnings have plunged from as much as $9,200 a month to about $3,700 since police began harrying the brothels in April.
On a recent night, about 20 prostitutes stood in skimpy clothing behind pink neon-lit brothel windows, shouting out invitations to a few men walking along the street. Many brothels have suspended business because of the crackdown. Signs in those still open show their occupants' defiance: "We will die here," they read, or "I will pour fuel on my body and die gloriously."
Prostitution was banned in South Korea in 1961, but police rarely enforced the law. Tougher legislation was created, however, after a 2002 fire killed 14 women confined at a drinking salon and forced to entertain and sometimes have sex with customers.
About 259,000 people, 70 percent of them male customers, have been arrested since the new laws took effect in 2004. Nearly 4,000 prostitutes have left their brothels, while 1,800 remain, and seven of the country's 35 major red-light districts have disappeared, according to police records.


Face-painted South Korean prostitutes wearing mourning clothes participate in a rally in Seoul, South Korea.
Prostitutes and pimps say police have taken a new and aggressive approach in Yeongdeungpo that has driven away most customers: Stepped-up patrols, police cars parked visibly in the area and plainclothes officers watching with binoculars.
Jang said police stormed the area three times in June alone, arresting three prostitutes and three customers.
"There hasn't been this kind of crackdown before," said Kang Hyun-joon, a former pimp who runs an association of prostitutes and pimps in South Korea.
Sex workers suspect the nearby Times Square department store pushed police to act against the brothels. Police and store officials deny the claim.
The National Police Agency says officers are also clamping down on other districts as part of a routine nationwide crackdown.
One Yeongdeungpo police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of department rules, said police decided to shut down the brothels because residents increasingly voiced worry about young students passing through the area since the upscale department store opened in 2009.
Blaze killed six
It is not the first time South Korea's development boom has sparked friction in older neighborhoods.
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In 2009, a police raid on a building occupied by squatters near another Seoul red-light district led to a blaze that killed six people.
Protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at charging police commandos, causing the fire. The building was eventually demolished to make room for planned new high-rise buildings.
Brothel workers and other critics say police crackdowns have unfairly targeted traditional red-light zones, while overlooking other sex businesses thriving in the shadows.
Among those are "kiss rooms," where men can pay for sex, and one-room apartments offering sexual services.
Men can also buy sex at barber shops, massage parlors and karaoke bars on almost all major streets and through online social networking sites.
South Korea runs nine support centers offering vocational training and psychological counseling to former prostitutes where they can work for a monthly salary of about $460 to $920, according to government officials.
Many women, however, find it hard to adjust to new lives and to resist the better pay of sex work. Despite the social stigma, they drop out of the centers and return to prostitution.

prominent Long Island Jewish leader was caught with his dreidel out in a string of sordid sex tapes, according to sensational Manhattan court records.


Rabbi Avraham Rabinowich -- who leads the wealthy, Conservative Bellmore Jewish Center and is vice president of the Long Island Board of Rabbis -- allegedly made appointments with prostitutes on the Sabbath shortly after services.

He was then caught on camera in a hotel room enjoying some hard-core, commandment-breaking action, according to blockbuster court papers filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.


JAMES MESSERSCHMIDT
THOU SHALT NOT: Rabbi Avraham Rabinowich (inset) is allegedly filmed with a hooker and an investigator, according to a suit by his ex-wife, Amora.

The holy man's estranged wife, Amora, a respected psychologist, got wind of the tawdry tricks while they were going through a bitter custody battle, she said.

She managed to have Rabinowich secretly filmed with a call girl and entered the photographic evidence into the record of the bitter custody case.

"Since when are prostitutes kosher?" Amora Rabinowich told The Post. "He was coming to court claiming he was this pious individual, but he was using the phone on the Sabbath to meet prostitutes.

"And what kind of rabbi is he? He didn't even take these prostitutes to the mikvah [Jewish ritual cleansing bath] first.

"What is he doing, praying or laying?"

Rabbi Rabinowich responded to the shocking claims by saying only, "I have no response. Have a nice day."

His lawyer, Jeffrey Lewisohn, called the wife's discovery a "setup" and downplayed the matter, saying, "It doesn't matter, this was five or six years ago."

Malcolm Taub, a former lawyer for the rabbi, blasted Amora, saying, "This is a very sick woman . . . This man has gone through hell with this woman."



According to papers filed by Amora, the rabbi wound up arranging a romp through a madam who really was one of his wife's private eyes.

"I am tall and nice-looking, don't worry, I'm OK," Rabinowich allegedly told the investigator at one point.

He was eventually filmed with the hooker at the low-rent Pam Am Hotel in Queens on March 18, 2006, the court papers claimed. A second woman in the photo was the private eye, Amora Rabinowich said.

"He needs help, serious help, to be a healthy individual and to be a proper role model to both the children and the community," she said.

A judge decided that the video was not relevant to the case, and the couple were granted joint custody of their three boys earlier this year.

"It was set up by her investigators. This was something the mother contrived," Lewisohn said. "If you're not doing something relevant in front of the children, it doesn't have an impact on the judge's decision."

Amora Rabinowich said the photos -- which were never released publicly until now -- may still come back to haunt her ex-hubby when she makes a motion to the court to move their kids to the West Coast on Aug. 17.

Millions spent in 88 brothels in Northern Ireland

BBC investigation has found that up to £500,000 every week is being spent on prostitution in Northern Ireland.

Police estimate there are 88 brothels in operation, with Northern Ireland having a higher demand for prostitution than most other areas of Europe.

The brothels are usually run by local gangs, including paramillitaries, but there are also foreign groups.

Many of the women working in the brothels have been trafficked from abroad.

They are held captive and forced into prostitution.

The problem is most evident in Belfast, but other towns and cities - such as Londonderry, Antrim, Enniskillen, Portadown and Bangor - are known to have brothels.

The gangs can make millions of pounds in a year by exploiting women they have brought to Northern Ireland illegally.

The PSNI have broken up some of the prostitution rings and rescued dozens of women from the sex trade over the last couple of years.

However, every day, new women are being brought in from abroad and often the women are so traumatised by their experiences they can't help the police bring convictions against the gangs.

PSNI Detective Inspector Douglas Grant said the public needed to know the full extent of the problem.

"There's a significant demand in Northern Ireland for prostitu


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