Raped by a monster.. then trafficked back to Scotland
Survivor’s ordeal highlights plight of young women condemned to sex slavery by brutal gangs
A YOUNG Romanian woman raped by a savage murderer while working as a prostitute in Scotland was trafficked back here after the attack.
The victim returned home after her ordeal but was later stopped at Glasgow airport by officers fighting the trade in human beings.
She was one of 100 suspected victims of human trafficking refused entry to Britain at the airport in less than a year.
The victim and another woman were abducted and raped by car salesman Steven Mathieson, 40, at his Falkirk home in December 2015.
He had just murdered another sex worker, Luciana Maurer, 23, by stabbing her 44 times in the house.
The rape victims had to flee naked from the house and run to a neighbour for help as Mathieson chased them with knives. He is now serving life with a 22-year minimum term.
It’s understood the trafficking victim left Scotland after Mathieson’s conviction, only to be smuggled back here by an eastern European gang.
Border Force officials taking part in an antitrafficking operation stopped her at the airport and refused her entry.
Operation Outrun began in November 2016 and the team have interviewed more than 300 potential victims since.
More than 250 of them were Romanian and fewer than 50 were male. About 100 were barred from entering the UK.
One of them, a 23-yearold woman from Romania, arrived at the airport with no money, no return ticket and few possessions.
She claimed she was visiting her Romanian boyfriend, but the team learned she was headed for an address where 13 men lived – including two sex offenders.
Many of the suspected victims were young women with little or no money who had been promised jobs that didn’t exist. They didn’t know who they were meeting in Scotland, or where they were going.
Gordon Summers of Border Force said: “This is about safeguarding vulnerable young women and men who are being trafficked and exploited, as well as protecting communities.
“We are working with partners to identify the traffickers and flush out those behind the brothels.”