Debrecen Tribunal convicts man forcing his young acquaintance into prostitution

The Debrecen Court sentenced a man to six years imprisonment and a fine of HUF 300,000, because he forced his young acquaintance into prostitution and then took the money from her.

The court found the accused guilty of trafficking in human beings and forced labor for the purpose of obtaining a regular advantage for the purpose of obtaining sexual exploitation for the purpose of obtaining a regular offense against the victim, the court said.

The young woman met the older defendant on a social media website in June 2020. She fell in love with the man who took advantage of the emotional dependence of the young woman under guardianship because of her mental illness. In early September 2020, the accused persuaded the victim to work as a prostitute and then obliged her to hand over the money earned to him. The woman complied with the request.

The victim usually earned between 15 and 40 thousand forints a day in prostitution and handed over the full amount to the man every day in Debrecen. The woman was on her way out of the city every day between September and early December 2020, during which time the man was often abused, hit, kicked her if he found little income or felt she was not doing her job well. The relationship between the accused and the victim was severed in the first days of December 2020. The man then went abroad.

The defendant has been under arrest since March 2021 for a criminal case. He was denied throughout the proceedings and did not waive his right to a hearing at the preparatory meeting on 11 March. However, the defendant made a full statement pleading guilty at a public hearing in April.

In his reasoning, the judge assessed the confession, the remorseful behavior, and the need to care for four minor children as mitigating circumstances in favor of the accused. As an aggravating circumstance, however, he took into account the fact that the accused had a criminal record and that he had committed the offense by exploiting the influence and emotional attachment of the victim from the mental disability of the victim.

The verdict was noted by the prosecution, and the accused and his defense counsel appealed for relief. The court lifted the man’s arrest and ordered his criminal supervision until the second instance was finalized. However, the accused was not released because he began downloading the final detention imposed on him in another case, according to a statement from the court.