Canterbury crown court, where the case is being held

by Paul Hooper

A 15-year-old girl has shown a jury scars on her body which she alleges were the result of juju magic rituals.

The teenager has claimed she was made to swear an oath to obey a man now accused of trafficking children into the UK for prostitution.

Former security guard Osezua Elvis Osolase,42, from Beaumont Drive, Gravesend has denied 13 offences of trafficking, rape, false imprisonment and sexual activity with a child.

She is the second prosecution witness to give evidence at the trial at Canterbury Crown Court.

Earlier the jury heard from prosecutor Sarah Ellis how a 17-year-old from Nigeria became frightened after being told that a friend of her mother had sold her as a slave in Lagos.

She added: “The girl was scared also because she did not know what they were going to use her for and was mindful that in Nigeria they use human beings for sacrifice.”

The prosecution has alleged that Osolase posed a “Victor” and “Uncle” and used witchcraft and juju rituals to bring young girls to Britain before sending them to Italy to become prostitutes.

The 15-year-old – in a police interview played to the jury – told how her mother died after giving birth and her father died a year later.

She said she lived with an aunt who made her work on local farms and at 12 was given to a man in exchange for a farm “which is what happens if a man wishes to marry”, the jury heard.

The girl claimed she was regularly beaten and raped by the man, who made her pregnant and then kicked her in the stomach until she lost the child.

She then alleged that in 2010 a man she came to know as “Uncle” came to her village and started bringing her presents.

“I thought that he was a good person,” she said.

The prosecution claim that “Uncle” was Osolase who brought her to the UK and then locked her in a room and threatened that if she didn’t obey him she would be raped by “white men who smoke drugs.”

Osolase is then alleged to have groomed the teenager to pretend she had a mother, father and five brothers and sisters when she went to Italy.

Speaking in pidgin English, the girl added: “He said he had been doing this for 12 years. So I started to cry.

“He said that I should swear an oath, so I took an oath. He then told me that I should get ready to go to Italy. I started to cry and beg him. I couldn’t eat anything that day.”

The jury also heard claims that “Uncle” cut the girl’s hair, cut her pubic hair and took her pants.

The prosecutor said: “She was afraid because in Nigeria if someone collects your blood or hair it is as though he wants to use it, in her words: ‘to kill that person’.

“After five days he said it was time to go to Italy to be a prostitute..this was to be a secret and if she was caught and told the police that she would die. She believed it.

“He had a razor and marked her chest. It bled. He put black powder on to stop the bleeding, “ she claimed.
The trial continues.