Voodoo nurse convicted of using ‘black magic’ to enslave five women as sex workers, in landmark UK case
Josephine Iyamu’s human-trafficking scheme began with voodoo ceremonies in West Africa and ended in brothels in mainland Europe
A nurse known as “Madame Sandra” was found guilty on Thursday of submitting five Nigerians to black magic rituals then forcing them into European sex work in a landmark British slavery case.
A jury at Birmingham Crown Court in central England found Josephine Iyamu, 51, guilty of modern slavery and perverting the course of justice, prosecutors said.
The case marked the first successful prosecution of a Briton for slavery offences committed outside the country and was a test of the country’s tough anti-trafficking laws, passed in 2015 to crack down on the modern human slave trade.
“Iyamu exploited five vulnerable women by promising them a better life in Europe. Instead she treated the women like property,” Andy Young of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which prosecutes criminal cases, said in a statement.
With zero regard for their safety and well being, she sent them via dangerous routes to Germany and forced them to work in brothels to fund her own lifestyle
The court heard how Iyamu masterminded a trafficking scheme that began with voodoo ceremonies in West Africa and ended in brothels in mainland Europe.