by Paul Hooper

A former security guard accused of using witchcraft to traffic children for prostitution has admitted he used fake passports to smuggle people into Europe.

Ozesua Osolese - known by his middle name Elvis - claimed they were adults and none of them were forced to travel to Italy. He has denied six trafficking charges and seven sex offences.

Giving evidence at Canterbury Crown Court, Osolase, of Beaumont Drive, Gravesend, said he became involved in making travel arrangements for others because he lost his job as a guard at Harvey Nicholls, in London.

He said he was asked by a friend in Nigeria to arrange for a woman to travel from Stansted to Milan.

Osolase said he was given the name of someone from where he could rent a fake passport from between £300- £400.

"I knew it was wrong, but I was out of a job and I wanted money to pay for my mother's cancer operation."

Osolase claimed he was paid "between £1,100 and £1,700" to book the air tickets and arrange the false passports - travelling with the people to "ensure I would get the passports back".

Osolase - who is married to German wife Gabby - came to the UK in 2007 and worked for two years for a security company called Olympian in Wolverhampton.

He said he arranged trips with false passports to Milan and Limoges, in France, for adult women.

The prosecution has claimed he brought young teenage girls into Britain and then travelled with some to Italy, where they were to be introduced to prostitution.

He is accused of using juju magic - which is practised in parts of Nigeria - to frighten the girls into remaining silent about the travel arrangements in the UK.

"they were adult women and they were happy to go. i never forced them to travel..." – defendant ozesua osolese

Some of the girls - now aged between 15 to 18 - allege they were raped by Osolase while they were in Britain.

In November 2011, he claimed he was contacted "by an adult female" who wanted to go from the UK to Europe.

"She was from Nigeria and we met in Lewisham in London. I was paid to secure a passport and book a ticket. I can't remember precisely how much I was paid but it was between £1,100 and £1,700."

Osolase said he used the trips to buy clothes and sell them later in the UK - but denied forcing any of the women to travel to Italy or France.

"They were adult women and they were happy to go. I never forced them to travel."

He told the jury he was also contacted by a former school friend in Nigeria to arrange a fake passport for a woman and child in Italy to travel to Canada.

"I couldn't get a false child's passport so nothing came of it," he added.

The trial continues.