A boyfriend and his girlfriend who were arrested by Greater Manchester Police have been jailed for a collective 16 years for assault, kidnap and exploitation of a women in Cheetham Hill in 2020.
Mihai Jean-Marinel aged 29 of no fixed abode has been jailed for ten years for modern slavery and exploitation offences.
Florentina Urmez aged 27 of no fixed abode has been jailed for six years for kidnap and exploitation offences.
They were both subject to indefinite restraining orders and will both be subject to deportation upon release.
The victim, who was being forced into sex work at the time, was on Broughton Street, Manchester.
She was approached by a vehicle, when Urmuz got out and violently assaulted her. She was then coerced into the car, which quickly left the scene, and set off to Derby.
Following concerns raised by Manchester Action on Street Health (MASH), a specialist local charity which provides support to woman involved in sex work, police identified a potential address where the victim had been taken, and an investigation was launched immediately.
Florentina Urmuz heard that police were looking for the victim, so the following day, the victim and Urmuz attended Central Park police station in North Manchester in an attempt to prove she was safe, but this was just a guise.
Urmuz was arrested, and during the interview, she categorically denied her involvement in the kidnap, stating her intentions were to help the victim leave sex work behind. She denied the assault and claimed that what the CCTV depicted was all a ploy which would enable the victim to escape.
Working with a specialist charity, Justice and Care, the victim was immediately safeguarded and placed in care.
As the investigation developed, police and partners began to understand the scale of the abuse and exploitation this group had inflicted upon the victim.
It began in Bucharest, Romania almost thirteen years earlier, when the victim met Urmuz’s mother. She was offered a place to stay, but she was treated as a slave. She was forced to do housework and sex work and give the family all her earnings. The victim was subjected to years of physical and emotional abuse by Urmuz and her family. She was later moved to Craiova, Romania, with Urmuz, which is where she met Jean Marinel Mihai, the boyfriend of Urmuz at the time.
In December 2018, the victim was brought to the United Kingdom by Mihai, flying to Liverpool with the promise of a better life. Mihai used a number of methods to conceal the fact that they were known to one another, in order to avoid raising suspicions of airport staff. Upon arrival, she was placed in a guest house and put to work as a sex worker in the Cheetham Hill and Strangeways areas.
Mihai took any money that the victim earned and violently assaulted her on a number of occasions.
Whilst on bail, Florentina Urmuz and Ion Raducan left the country and returned to Romania. Efforts did not stop here to locate them and police continued to work with European law enforcement officers to bring them back to the UK to face justice.
Ion Raducan (31/10/1987) was convicted in 2021 for his role in the conspiracy and was jailed for six years. He will be deported to Romania upon release.
Detective Inspector Tony Platten the Senior Investigating Officer of this case said: “I would like to commend the survivor for her incredible strength throughout this entire process, and for trusting us and our partners to get justice.
“She endured years of abuse and coercion by this group, forced to live in unimaginable conditions for so much of her life. They took extraordinary measures to conceal their illicit operation, but I am glad today to see that they will now face a considerable time behind bars, before they will be deported by our immigration colleagues.
“It is only through support of partners like MASH and Justice and Care that the survivor has had the opportunity to be supported and rebuild her life, which had been taken from her for so many years.
“In cases like this, we have seen victims threatened and suffering extreme violence as the criminals exert control. This is why tackling modern slavery is a high priority for Greater Manchester Police and dedicated partners who are embedded into our teams to ensure victims receive the very best care and support available and are safeguarded throughout.
“Modern slavery is happening right here in Manchester. We need the public and professionals to be aware of the signs to look out for and report any concerns.”
