Men In Court Over Thai Sex Slavery

[george]

Men in court over Thai sex slavery

MEMBERS of a international crime syndicate kept Thai women prisoner in suburban Melbourne houses while forcing them to work in the sex trade, a court heard today.

Kam Tin Ho, of no fixed address, and Malaysian national Chee Fui Hoo, were remanded in custody after facing Melbourne Magistrates' Court today charged under rarely-used sexual servitude laws, which carry a maximum sentence of 25 years' jail.

Ho, 35, is the first person in Australia to be charged with entering a commercial transaction involving a slave, and conducting a business involving the sexual servitude of other persons.

Hoo, 38, of Nicholson Street, North Fitzroy, faces three counts of possessing a slave.

Opposing a bail application by Hoo, Australian Federal Police (AFP) agent Josephine Accetta said Ho and another suspect, Hoting Yeung, ran two brothels in South Melbourne from June last year where foreign women were forced to work as prostitutes.

Hoo allegedly helped by keeping three Thai women locked in a house in suburban Ashburton and drove them to-and-from the brothels.

The three women were part of a group of at least seven Thais who told the AFP they were slaves after being discovered in raids on 10 houses last month, Ms Accetta said.

Ms Accetta said the year-long investigation had produced a "very strong case".

"We have telephone intercept evidence and seven or eight witness statements," she said.

Ms Accetta said Ho was recorded trying to sell a 21-year-old woman for $21,000 after flying to Sydney with Yeung in August this year.

She said Yeung fled overseas on November 4 and was not expected to return.

Ho and Hoo were arrested in inner-suburban South Yarra yesterday afternoon.

An AFP spokesman said the arrests were part of an investigation of an trans-national syndicate that also exploited women from Korea and Hong Kong.

Magistrate Lesley Fleming refused Hoo bail, noting he had no links to Australia, was a frequent international traveller and accused of repeatedly trying to contact witnesses since the raids.

Ho did not seek bail, but his lawyer Rob Stary said he would apply for it next week.

Ms Fleming ordered both men to reappear on February 25 next year.

Neither man was required to enter a plea.

-- AAP 2004-12-03

[udon]

Hmm, I saw this on the ABC channel last night.

1st thoughts are....... how the h ell did these girls get past the Thai Case Workers at the Aus embassy?

Esp after reading posts here about TGFs being knocked back by Thai CWs !

I think some peeps at the embassy would be a bit worried today.

Ho and Hoo had better start learning to speak Strine from now on

[snoophound]

Its a major problem here in Au ,mainly by chinese owners.

Another recent case in Sydney with girls locked up in a parlour.

Immigration are on to it here visiting these places reasonably regularly looking for visa infractions,girls working without permit etc.

The latest nefarious act by the Chinese here is get find the girls in the casino,lend them money to lose and then force them to work the debt off in the many massage parlours around the town.

quote=udon,2004-12-03 20:14:34]

Hmm, I saw this on the ABC channel last night.

1st thoughts are....... how the h ell did these girls get past the Thai Case Workers at the Aus embassy?

Esp after reading posts here about TGFs being knocked back by Thai CWs !

I think some peeps at the embassy would be a bit worried today.

Ho and Hoo had better start learning to speak Strine from now on

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[britmaveric]

Lets face it there are ways to smuggle people in as well. Or these could be Thais on actual visas but dropped off the radar so to speak. Never the less its a shame when people are forced into an ugly situation such as this - its one thing if you are willing, but quite another if its against your will.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Hmm, I saw this on the ABC channel last night.

1st thoughts are....... how the h ell did these girls get past the Thai Case Workers at the Aus embassy?

Esp after reading posts here about TGFs being knocked back by Thai CWs !

I think some peeps at the embassy would be a bit worried today.

Ho and Hoo had better start learning to speak Strine from now on

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps a nid noi incentive was paid to the CW's

[udon]

Hoo & Ho (I just love those names ) are facing 25 years in Long Bay Jail, or worse.

It might make them loosen up a bit and spill the beans for a reduced sentence!

Feb 25th should prove interesting........

[LaoPo]

More than 25 years ago a Thai 'friend' took me and 3 other farang friends to an obscure off-street in a now-very-famous holiday-spot in TH.

No farang would ever have found this off-street.

He took us into a small kind of wooden house and was proud he could show us the 'girls'.

They were litterally 'chained' to their beds...some of them 11, 12 years old.

I went outside and puked. Couldn't stand the sight and unbelievable situation the girls were in.

This was a place the local Thai went to..a dirty and cheap place.

2 months later I read in the (European) papers that during a heavy storm, a fire/blaze blow away the complete street. dozens of girls died...DOZENS!!

Thailand..land of smiles

Maybe you ask: what's the connection?

I wonder what happened to the so called

"Papa's and Mama's" who were not chained...

were they put in jail for 25 years....? I don't know but certainly hope so!

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Hoo & Ho (I just love those names    ) are facing 25 years in Long Bay Jail, or worse.         

It might make them loosen up a bit and spill the beans for a reduced sentence!

Feb 25th should prove interesting........

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hoo is Ho and it's Christmas ... Ho Ho bloody Ho

[Sydney_Tom]

Such a shame they can't get the same punishment in Australia, they would have had here.....

[chuchok]

Hmm, I saw this on the ABC channel last night.

1st thoughts are....... how the h ell did these girls get past the Thai Case Workers at the Aus embassy?

Esp after reading posts here about TGFs being knocked back by Thai CWs !

I think some peeps at the embassy would be a bit worried today.

Ho and Hoo had better start learning to speak Strine from now on

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Perhaps a nid noi incentive was paid to the CW's

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If they are anything like NZ Immigration, then I wld say a big fat yes Doc.

NZ Embassy "let go" a number of people both here and in NZ over the last year or so for this very reason.

[petaling]

Hoo & Ho (I just love those names ) are facing 25 years in Long Bay Jail, or worse.

Today, they ended up with 14 years and 10 years.

Man found guilty in sex slave case

The Age/October 16, 2009

A man sentenced to 14 years' jail for possessing five Thai women as slaves to work in South Melbourne brothels was yesterday convicted of using a sixth woman as part of the scheme.

Kam Tin Ho, 40, was the Melbourne architect of the enterprise, which brought the women to Australia to work in brothels in 2003 and 2004. Five of the six had previously been prostitutes.

The women were kept in houses in Mount Waverley, Ashburton and North Fitzroy and rarely let out unsupervised. Their passports were seized and they had to service 650 to 750 clients to repay debts of up to $94,000 for their passage, and to send money to their families.

After a 10-week trial in the Supreme Court, Justice Philip Cummins last month sentenced Kam Tin Ho to 14 years' jail, with a minimum of 11 years, for 10 offences including five of possessing a slave and four of trying to conceal cash transfers to the women's families in Thailand.

His brother Ho Kam Ho, 39, will serve 10 years' jail with a minimum of seven after being convicted of three counts of exercising power over slaves and one of entering into a commercial transaction involving a slave.

Two other men, Chee Fui Hoo, 42, and Slamet Edy Rahardjo, 53, were found not guilty of related charges. A suppression order, expiring yesterday, prevented earlier reporting of the brothers' sentences.

Justice Cummins said they had controlled the vulnerable women with ''the ever-present shadow of a minder under the veneer of a helper'', describing the scheme as ''modern slavery, not with physical chains but with mental chains''.

Kam Tin Ho showed little emotion as a Supreme Court jury found him guilty of using the sixth woman as a slave, but not guilty of possessing her, following a week-long trial before Justice Lex Lasry.

Sarisa Leech, 37, became tearful as she was convicted of possessing and using the woman as a slave. The court heard she had bought the woman in Thailand, arranged travel to Australia and lived with her to control her movements.

All six women received $5 of the $125 charged by the brothels for each client they serviced while fulfilling their contracts.

In the first trial, John Dickinson, for Kam Tin Ho, said: ''A harsh, exploitative contract - and I'm not saying this was - would not qualify as leading to a condition of slavery.''

Justice Lasry will hear pre-sentence submissions on October 22.

[ratcatcher]

Hoo & Ho (I just love those names ) are facing 25 years in Long Bay Jail, or worse.

Today, they ended up with 14 years and 10 years.

Man found guilty in sex slave case

The Age/October 16, 2009

A man sentenced to 14 years' jail for possessing five Thai women as slaves to work in South Melbourne brothels was yesterday convicted of using a sixth woman as part of the scheme.

Kam Tin Ho, 40, was the Melbourne architect of the enterprise, which brought the women to Australia to work in brothels in 2003 and 2004. Five of the six had previously been prostitutes.

The women were kept in houses in Mount Waverley, Ashburton and North Fitzroy and rarely let out unsupervised. Their passports were seized and they had to service 650 to 750 clients to repay debts of up to $94,000 for their passage, and to send money to their families.

After a 10-week trial in the Supreme Court, Justice Philip Cummins last month sentenced Kam Tin Ho to 14 years' jail, with a minimum of 11 years, for 10 offences including five of possessing a slave and four of trying to conceal cash transfers to the women's families in Thailand.

His brother Ho Kam Ho, 39, will serve 10 years' jail with a minimum of seven after being convicted of three counts of exercising power over slaves and one of entering into a commercial transaction involving a slave.

Two other men, Chee Fui Hoo, 42, and Slamet Edy Rahardjo, 53, were found not guilty of related charges. A suppression order, expiring yesterday, prevented earlier reporting of the brothers' sentences.

Justice Cummins said they had controlled the vulnerable women with ''the ever-present shadow of a minder under the veneer of a helper'', describing the scheme as ''modern slavery, not with physical chains but with mental chains''.

Kam Tin Ho showed little emotion as a Supreme Court jury found him guilty of using the sixth woman as a slave, but not guilty of possessing her, following a week-long trial before Justice Lex Lasry.

Sarisa Leech, 37, became tearful as she was convicted of possessing and using the woman as a slave. The court heard she had bought the woman in Thailand, arranged travel to Australia and lived with her to control her movements.

All six women received $5 of the $125 charged by the brothels for each client they serviced while fulfilling their contracts.

In the first trial, John Dickinson, for Kam Tin Ho, said: ''A harsh, exploitative contract - and I'm not saying this was - would not qualify as leading to a condition of slavery.''

Justice Lasry will hear pre-sentence submissions on October 22.

I hope these two Hoes experience the same loving attention as these poor women did, as someone's bitch in the Australian penal system.

Enjoy your stay guys.

[david96]

And how do these girls enter Australia? The same way as any other visitor, a 676 visa.

Some on a student visa where they can legally work for 20 hours a week.

Work for 3 months, earn good money and depart. they come from Korea, Japan,

Hongkong, Malaysia and Thailand. They may work a circuit eg Sydney, Gold coast, Cairns.

The 676s do run a risk of being caught working illegally. They get paid 70/30 or 60/40 basis in cash. And of course they pay no income tax.

But they know what they are doing, they are self employed freelancers and pay their own way.

There is demand for them in Australia.

But there are many others who are not, their airfares and accomodation costs are paid for by

others and they are promised jobs as "waitresses" etc. When they arrive in Australia these

unscrupulous people hold their passports and control their movements which constitutes

slavery and of course they must repay their debt to their "owners". They control any money

they earn.

And 25 years max. is very reasonable for this type of offence.

The number of these sex-slave girls that enter Australia per year is very small in comparision

with other visa entrants, but yes they do exist.

And now you know why Australian Immigration is tough on Thai female visa 676 applicants.

[animatic]

Couldn't happen to a nicer pair of blokes....

Congratulations on a good prosecution of total scum.

And will note the time frame needed to nail their cases shut.

Just under 5 years, and people here whine because 'certain other cases',

have not traversed the legal hurdles to conviction in under a year...

As if this is some unusual thing even in the west.