IIs forced to work as prostitutes

THREE mainland women were lured to Hong Kong with promises of jobs, only to find themselves locked up and forced to work as sex slaves, the District Court heard yesterday.

So Wing-hong, 17, admitted detaining women in a vice establishment, exercising control over a person for the purpose of prostitution, and living on the earnings of prostitution.

On October 12 last year, police burst into the Tsuen Wan brothel where the women had been held for a week. They found the trio huddled in a backroom, naked and terrified.

The women told the officers a man nicknamed Ho Pak had helped them sneak across the border. They had been told they would be given jobs as factory workers, prosecutor Winsome Chan said.

But the women, aged from 19 to 22, were forced to work as prostitutes. They were not paid; their earnings were to be credited to the snakehead who smuggled them across the border.

So watched the mainlanders closely and brought them food and drink. The women had sex with numerous clients and So was responsible for collecting the money.