London-based nurse has been
convicted of trafficking five Nigerian women into Germany to work as
prostitutes after subjecting them to "voodoo" rituals.
Josephine Iyamu forced the
women to swear oaths to hand over money to her during "juju"
ceremonies.
Iyamu, 51, formerly of
Bermondsey, was convicted of five counts of arranging or facilitating travel
for sexual exploitation at Birmingham Crown Court.
Jurors also found her
guilty of perverting the course of justice.
The rituals saw the women
forced to eat chicken hearts, drink blood containing worms, and have powder
rubbed into cuts, the court heard.
Iyamu is the first person
to be convicted under Modern Slavery Act laws passed in 2015, allowing
prosecutions of British citizens for overseas sexual trafficking.
She was born in Liberia,
but became a British citizen in 2009 having been allowed to stay in the UK due
to her nursing qualifications.
Her husband, 60-year-old
Efe Ali-Imaghodor, was acquitted of doing acts intending to pervert the course
of justice.
Psychological control
Iyamu declared a modest
income of around £14,500 in 2016/17 from her work as an NHS agency nurse, the
court heard.
But after her arrest last
year investigators found she was able to afford to spend thousands on air
travel and a large home in Benin City, Nigeria.
Prosecutor Simon Davis said
by performing rituals Iyamu gained psychological control over the women.
The National Crime Agency
(NCA) said Iyamu had "enlisted the help of a voodoo priest" to put
the women through a "juju" ceremony which was "designed to exert
control" over them.
The victims and their
families were threatened with serious harm if they broke their oath to Iyamu,
according to the NCA.
The court heard Iyamu was
"willing to put the women at risk of serious injury and or death as they
made their journey from Nigeria to Europe".
They were too afraid to
challenge her or fail to pay her back tens of thousands of Euros she charged
them to be trafficked into Germany, the court was told.
Opening the case, Mr Davis
said: "The debts incurred by the women were enforced through fear.
"Each of the women
were put through what is known to some as a voodoo ceremony."
Iyamu will be sentenced on
Wednesday.
see her face shameless woman
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