Human Trafficking Watch

Not really a lot of detail in this article. I’m assuming Italian police were doing the arresting.

Romanian Times – Home > General News > Human-trafficking gang dismantled:

A human trafficking gang who were luring young women by offering allegedly well-paid jobs in Italy has been dismantled by police, it was announced today (Fri).
D.S., 35, was arrested and D.D., 29, is being searched for on charges of transporting young women and minors from Romania to Italy. Both are from Slatinain Olt county in southern Romania

Once they arrived in Italy, their victims were taken to Cerano and Cossol Nova and   exploited, being forced to work for them or to prostitute themselves, and were continuously under threat.

The victims were forced to steal from stores for the benefit of their exploiters. Police confiscated laptops, video cameras, TVs and other IT products raids on their homes.

Free at last: female slave who dared to take Niger to court - Times Online:

The Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) ordered Niger to pay Ms Mani 10 million CFA francs (

Police arrest 121 in child porn raids - Europe- msnbc.com:

Spanish police arrested 121 people in the country’s biggest-ever crackdown on child pornography, seizing discs containing millions of video and photo files shared by a network that distributed them in 75 countries, authorities said Wednesday. Two of the suspects produced pornographic material themselves using members of their own families, police said in a statement. Those arrested came from all kinds of backgrounds, including pilots, salespeople, porters, taxi drivers and bank employees, it said.

British pop star, Gary Glitter, is roaming the world again after being release from a Vietnamese prison. He was convicted in Vietnam three years ago for molesting children and previously convicted in the UK for child porn possession. Glitter is the guy who wrote “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” that has become a sports anthem. It’s good to read the NFL banned his version of “Rock and Roll (Part 2)” from its games. The NFL and other organizations have substituted a cover version for Glitter’s version, however, and I’m not sure if that’s any different than playing his.

Various media have reported the guy still has millions and is seeking refuge in Asia. The British government renewed his passport in 2002 and the Daily Mail is reporting that as a blunder. However, 19 countries so far have refused him entry. Officials in Hong Kong put him back on a plane to Thailand where he was first refused entry. Countries that normally pander to sex tourism are avoiding a celebrity who inadvertently put a spotlight on the issue.

The Times is reporting that he will be shuffled back to England:

When he does arrive back in Heathrow the singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, will be met by police and told that he was being placed on the sex offenders’ register.

He will join 30,000 people on the register and will be required to give police his name, date of birth, home address and national insurance number. He will be kept under the highest level of surveillance and be visited weekly by police and probation staff. If he breaks the terms of his registration he could face a prison sentence of up to five years.

I hope his celebrity keeps him in check. A pedophile with millions is dangerous and Glitter appears unrepentant.

27-year-old Philip Thompson pleaded guilty to child porn charges and was sentenced indefinitely to prison in Britain, using a wait-and-see approach to how long he’ll actually serve. His lawyer made excuses for him:

Lawyer Brian Russell said Thompson had cooperated with police since his arrest in February.

“This is really a young man who has fallen into that stereotype of a rather sad and lonely teenager who spends too much time in a darkened room in front of a computer screen,” Russell said. “He has not had much life experience to get himself mature.”

Immature? I hope there aren’t a lot of people buying into that line of thinking when it comes to child porn trafficking online. Calling Thompson a stereotype insinuates that child porn is something acceptable if you only know the circumstance. In addition, Thompson is 27 years old, not a teenager.

It is these situations that make me wonder how some defense attorneys sleep at night. At least the judge had a reasoned opinion of him:

Judge Michael Taylor gave him an indeterminate prison sentence, saying he must prove he is not a risk to society before he can be released.

He told Thompson he was “somebody who is prepared to go to extreme lengths to feed your lust. You are a very dangerous individual indeed.”

Indeed.

Every once in a while, I’ll see a story like this one where people are kept against their will as performers. This usually happens with Chinese citizens, but obviously can happen anywhere.

They were forced to work 15 to 20 hours a day for about $200 a week instead of the promised $957, with $757 deducted as “expenses for their upkeep.”

An appalled spectator tipped off the police after seeing the show, in which Giusi, the 19-year-old woman, tried to escape from the piranha tank “trembling with terror” her head was held down by Ingrassia.

Her 16-year-old sister, Olga, was bitten by snakes that she was forced to drape on her body, and she had injuries to her stomach where the snakes had wound themselves too tightly around her. The circus owners had rubbed ointment on snake bites on her legs but had refused to take her to a doctor.

Police said the Bulgarian family had lived in the back of a cockroach-infested lorry used for animal transport. The only meat they had been given since January consisted of leftovers from the circus owners’ Easter lunch last weekend.

Reports said Giusi had a tumour on her ear for which she had twice been operated in Bulgaria. Doctors had told her never to get water in her ears, especially cold water. However the water tank in which she was forced to swim with eight piranhas was kept at a temperature just above zero in order to make the piranhas lethargic.