A young Nigerian woman who was allegedly smuggled into Ireland and forced into prostitution underwent a “voodoo process” to stop her revealing the name of her traffickers, a court was told.
The alleged victim, who cannot be named, was said to have sworn an oath that she would not report Joy Imasogie during a session with a “native doctor” in Nigeria before she came to Ireland.
Ms Imasogie, 40, pleaded not guilty in Dublin circuit criminal court yesterday to charges relating to the trafficking and forced prostitution of the woman between March 2006 and April 2008.
Kerida Naidoo, SC, for the prosecution, told the jury of seven men and five women that they would hear evidence that Ms Imasogie “trafficked” the woman, then 20 years old, into Ireland in 2006, forcing her to work as a prostitute in order to pay back €50,000 she was told she owed to get here.
The alleged victim told the court that she was living in dire financial circumstances with her grandmother in Benin City, Nigeria, when a neighbour told her he knew somebody in Europe who was looking for girls.
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The woman said she then spoke on the phone to Ms Imasogie, who told her she owned a hair salon in Ireland and asked her if she was a “good girl”.
“She said I could help out in the salon and mind her children,” the woman said.
A man named Kingsley then arranged for her to visit a village where she swore an oath before a “native doctor”, the woman said. Her nails and pubic hair were cut and she promised that she would not report Ms Imasogie or Kingsley to the police, she said. She also swore that she would pay back the €50,000.
The woman said she then travelled to Lagos, where she was provided with a false passport that contained an Irish visa and boarded a flight to Dublin. All her travel arrangements were paid for and she had no money on her.
Upon arriving in Ireland, the woman said she was taken to a house in Finglas where she met Ms Imasogie.
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“She told me I would have to sleep with men for money and that way I’d be able to pay the money quickly,” the woman said. “I was angry and crying, saying this wasn’t what I was told. I didn’t want to do that.”
The woman said she initially thought €50,000 would be easy to pay off, before realising it was a huge amount. “I was very bitter,” she said.
The court heard that the woman then travelled to Sligo with another Nigerian woman, where she was told that she had to have sex with an Irish man. She said she tried to just give him a massage but he insisted they have sex.
The trial continues.