People-trafficking charge cleared

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/8208376.stm

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The first man convicted of people-trafficking in Northern Ireland is to have his record for the crime cleared.

Mark Alexander Russell, 38, of Dromore, County Down, was also found guilty of controlling prostitution, but that conviction will stay on his record.

The move follows the discovery of an error by the Public Prosecution Service and there now appears to be no evidence of trafficking.

Russell was arrested last year during a UK-wide crackdown on the vice trade.

He and a 55-year-old Malaysian woman were picked up by police at a Belfast brothel at an apartment in Ardmore Court.

Charge dropped

The pair were originally charged with human trafficking and both admitted to running prostitution for gain.

However, the charge of trafficking against the woman was later dropped.

Four foreign women who had been working as prostitutes were taken into the care of the authorities.

Russell was accused of collecting women off the ferry from Scotland and taking them to the brothel.

The case was heard in the Magistrates Court where he received a suspended sentence of two years and walked free.

Doubts about the trafficking charge against Russell arose from concerns that the case was heard in the Magistrates Court which is limited in the length of sentences it can impose.

Had the case gone to Crown Court he could have been sentenced to between seven and 14 years.

It was at this point that the Public Prosecution Service noticed that Russell should not have been charged with the trafficking offence because of difficulties over evidence.

It is understood the prostitutes said they had been willing participants and had not been duped or brought to Northern Ireland against their will.