A Colombian woman told a court how a man who helped her, her sister and aunt to come to Malta to work as escorts demanded sexual favours from her to pay off their debt for the flights.
The woman was one of the three alleged victims involved in criminal proceedings against Damiano Nicastro, who is accused of trafficking the women for sexual exploitation and of using violence and coercing them into prostitution.
He denies the charges.
The victims are being identified as Victim A, who is the aunt of two sisters, Victims B and C.
Last week, Victim A described the threats and coercion they faced after they were unable to repay the cost of their flights and asked for additional payments of thousands of euro.
On Tuesday, her niece, Victim C, took the witness stand and described being told to repay the debt through sex. She claimed a man, identified only as “Paolo”, would turn up to get the money from them.
“Every time Paolo came by, he requested sexual favours to pay off the debt,” she said. “We did not discuss an amount of sexual encounters.”
She said she had sex with him three or four times.
The woman told the court the women had met the accused, Nicastro, when they first arrived in Malta in February last year. They had travelled from Medellin to Bogota and then to Paris before finally arriving in Malta, where they had agreed to work as escorts and part time cleaners.
Nicastro picked the women up on their arrival and took them to an apartment in Naxxar.
The initial agreement was that the aunt and sister would pay a percentage of their earnings to their sister, Victim B, who would then hand them over to Nicastro and Paolo.
Initially Nicastro was “nice” to them but a day after they celebrated one of the women’s birthdays, Nicastro and “Paolo” allegedly requested their passports to apply for their work permits in connection with the cleaning jobs.
The threats began once they had handed over their passports to Nicastro. The women were allegedly told that if they want their passports back they would have to pay €10,000.
Like her aunt, Victim C said they gave Nicastro less than the men had asked for. When Nicastro realised, they received a message from Paolo who allegedly told them that if they do not pay up the full amount, he would “find them and hurt them”.
Speaking about the sexual favours allegedly requested by Paolo, Victim C explained that he demanded them only from her. Asked if Paolo wanted sexual favours from her sister and her aunt, Victim C explained that she was told that through these favours she would pay off her and her sister’s and aunt’s debt.
Under cross-examination, Victim C said she could not recall the percentage of the earnings originally agreed with the men.
As the threats got worse, the women found themselves without money and scared that something would happen to them. They went to the police.
At the end of Tuesday’s sitting, Nicastro’s father, Vincenzo, took the witness stand and testified ahead of bail submissions scheduled for the next sitting.
He explained that he pays rent for his family and that of his son who has two children.
Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech presided. AG lawyer Valentina Cassar prosecuted. Lawyers Nicholas Mifsud appeared for the accused. Lawyers Lara Dimitrijevic and Stephanie Caruana appeared for the alleged victims.