Traffickers dump pregnant teenager

A heavily pregnant 16-year-old Kenyan brought into Britain by people traffickers was abandoned in Sheffield city centre after suffering months of imprisonment, beatings and rape.

She told the authorities she had been driven to the city from somewhere else in the country, probably London. The girl, whose mother died two years ago, had apparently been living on the streets of Nairobi until she was promised work as a domestic servant and brought to the UK by boat last summer, accompanied by a woman.

On arrival, she was met at a railway station by two men. As has been the case with many such girls, they used violence and threats to force her to work as a prostitute in a house, believed by detectives to be in the London area.There were four other young women at the house, all of whom spoke a language other than English and were white.

The girl became pregnant after three months and when she could no longer work she was dumped.

Sheffield's part in the people trafficking trade was illustrated last October at a trial which resulted in the conviction of a Serbian and a Lithuanian for the rape, trafficking and imprisonment of two Lithuanians, aged 18 and 19.