Call to review sentence for brothel man

An appeal for the country’s top QC to review the “lenient” sentence for a man who ran a Canterbury brothel are being led by a charity which helps victims of human trafficking.

The Medaille Trust is demanding the Attorney General intervene after Chinese national Teng Gao narrowly avoided prison getting a year-long sentence, suspended for 18 months.

At Canterbury Crown Court the 38-year-old admitted running a brothel out of a terraced house in Wincheap for at least seven months.

Police raided when one of the sex workers complained of being drugged and “savagely exploited”, begging one of her clients to alert the authorities.

Sharon Benning-Prince, a trustee of The Medaille Trust, wrote to Attorney General Jeremy Wright asking him to refer the case to the Court of Appeal “on the basis that the sentencing in relation to the case was unduly lenient”.

She added: “This provides a message that organised prostitution and exploitation is acceptable.”

Dad- of- two Gao, who has since moved to Middlesbrough, claimed he did not know sex was being sold at the house in North Lane, which neighbours thought was being used for student accommodation.