COMING round from surgery, Marie* felt woozy, her heart beat racing as she looked down at her chest and her new DD cup breasts.
She’d just undergone a boob job, but this wasn’t an operation she’d always wanted – sickeningly it was surgery done against her will, ordered by the wealthy man who had trafficked her to the UK to sell her for sex.
His twisted reason? He could now advertise mum-of-three Marie as ‘curvaceous’’ to punters, to rake in more cash.
Over the years she’d endured endless, hellish abuse – drugged, forced to have sex with 20 men a day, burned with cigarettes and threatened with being forcefully injected with heroin.
And, when she wasn’t having sex, Marie was forced to run for hours on an exercise machine by her exploiter – an upper-class wealthy businessman who was, and still is, well-respected within the local community – to ensure she kept her petite figure.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous from the Salvation Army safe house she now lives in west England, Marie says: “What I went through is shocking – but for me, none of that compared to the unbearable pain I felt when I thought about my three children back home, who had no idea what had happened to me.
“I became numb to the physical pain and violence, but I thought I might die of a broken heart when I thought about my children.”
Sadly, while modern slavery and sex trafficking remain a very hidden crime many aren’t aware of, it’s a growing problem.
The number of potential victims referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) has increased substantially over the years, and it’s estimated there are over 100,000 modern slavery victims in the UK.
Marie, now 58, is originally from an country in Southern Africa, and has lived in a Salvation Army safe house since 2021.
Before she was trafficked and sexually exploited in the UK, Marie had a traumatic childhood, which made her particularly susceptible to exploitation.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, brave Marie says: “The first time my stepfather raped me was on my fifth birthday.
“I would spend night after night wandering the streets and would sleep in bins just to avoid him.
“He would also invite other men over to abuse me too around the age of 11.
One time he beat me and put a gun to my head and raped me… I lived in fear”
Marie
“Two of them fathered two of my children, and I fell pregnant the first time aged 15.
“Then I began to fight back and my mum divorced him, but he would still come to the house every other night.
“One time he beat me and put a gun to my head and raped me, and I fell pregnant with my third. I lived in fear.”
While many victims, like Marie, have been trafficked into the country from overseas – frequently eastern Europe, south east Asia and Africa – there is no ‘typical victim’ of slavery.
Sadly, people like Marie, who have suffered previous abuse, are more vulnerable, however victims can be men, women and children of all ages, ethnicities and nationalities.
Scarily you could have encountered victims without even knowing.
Unseen head of policy and research Lauren Saunders has eight years experience working directly with survivors of trafficking and exploitation.
Speaking to Fabulous, Lauren says: “There is an increased awareness of the issue, but it’s still a very hidden crime.
“A lot of people still don’t know what modern day slavery is, and it’s not widely acknowledged so if people are interacting with victims or survivors of modern slavery they’re not necessarily aware.
“A big misconception is sex trafficking only happens to people from overseas, when actually a big proportion are actually UK nationals, exploited in the UK and gang involvement is a big part of that.
“Anyone can be a victim of it if that person is vulnerable – say they’ve lost their house, are struggling financially, or have had a relationship breakdown. Anything that makes someone vulnerable could be manipulated by a gang member.”
To escape her troubled upbringing, Christian Marie spent a lot of time at the local church, and that’s where she met the couple that would go on to exploit her, when she was 20.
She says: “The family who bought me here were very well-respected. The man was British, had a good job in tech and was part of an upper-class family.
“He would travel to developing countries for work, working with governments to set up new projects, and that was how he ended up in my country.”
After gaining her trust, Marie confided in his wife one day about the abuse.
Marie says: “She said they were returning to England soon, and said I could come with them and go to university.
“It seemed like the perfect opportunity to get a qualification and my mum was excited and agreed to look after my children.
“I thought I could then return home and get a good job to provide for my family.”
The couple paid for Marie’s flight, and when she arrived in the UK, she was so excited.
She says: “I was so grateful to them initially I voluntarily tidied and cleaned their house and looked after their children to say thank you.
“They showed me the university, and I even returned home briefly after a few months and told everyone how great it was.”
Many victims are kept hidden out of sight, however the following could indicate someone is being exploited sexually, according to trafficking and modern slavery charity Unseen:
For more info on how to spot the signs of modern slavery, visit Unseen.
However the couple then paid for Marie to return – and that’s when everything changed.
Marie says: “They took my passport off me as soon as I landed.
“I was then told I had to clean the house and do the gardening.”
Marie was isolated in the family’s home, cut off from the outside world.
Her only connection to the world beyond was through the books they allowed her to read, or the occasions she could salvage newspaper scraps when cleaning their children’s hamster cage.
“I lived off McDonalds and at one point my exploiter said I was gaining weight so when I wasn’t having sex I would be told to run on a jogging machine”
Marie
She says: “I’m not a rocket scientist, but I’m not stupid either.
“I was very afraid and lived in fear. I believed everything they told me, and they said if the police found out about me I’d be sent to prison so every time I walked down the street I’d avoid the police.
“Then they told me I had to repay them for bringing me here and they began inviting men around their family home to abuse me.
“Sometimes ‘clients’ were men in suits, and they would transport me around the country so men could have sex with me.
“They gave me pills which made me very groggy, and I’d smoke 60 cigarettes a day.”
Marie was eventually taken to work in a brothel masquerading as a massage parlour, situated directly opposite a police station.
She says: “It was £30 for oral sex, £40 for sex and £45 for both. Sometimes they would make me see 20 men in one day.
“I had a minder and they would make sure I didn’t keep any of the money.”
Shockingly, Marie was even forced to have breast surgery, to make her chest bigger.
She says: “They wanted me to have big breasts so they could make more money and charge more as I was quite flat-chested, so they took me to see a surgeon.
“I went from a B cup to around a DD I think, and they were able to charge more because I was more curvaceous.
“I lived off McDonalds and at one point my exploiter also said I was gaining weight so when I wasn’t having sex I would be told to run on a jogging machine.”
While most victims, like Marie, are ‘recruited’ in person before being put to work in brothels, some who find themselves trapped in the sex industry have been ensnared through online job adverts and social media.
In cases of sexual exploitation, adult services websites often unwittingly play a key role. Lauren says: “A lot of sex exploitation is advertised online and on social media platforms, but pop up brothels can appear anywhere, in any neighbourhood.
“In a private housing estate if you’re seeing a constant stream of people coming in and out of a property that might be suspicious and could indicate someone inside that property is being exploited.
“Pop up brothels are more and more prevalent and they are literally just a normal flat or house. It doesn’t necessarily look how people imagine a brothel to look.
“When I first started working in this sector I didn’t realise how many brothels were actually in the town I was living in.
“Once you see it you can’t unsee it. They’re everywhere.”
Despite the physical pain she was forced to endure, Marie became numb to it – and the only thing that caused her any real agony was being kept apart from her children, now all in their forties.
While she was gone, she had no contact with them for a long period of time, but she believes they were told she was in a psychiatric hospital.
She says: “I missed my children so much.
“I didn’t really care what they were doing to me, it was nothing compared to the pain of not seeing my children.
“I felt like I’d die of a broken heart.”
Marie was passed around from exploiter to exploiter, and each time she hoped things would get better.
At one point she was sold to a man, who she went on to marry.
She says: “I was just happy to finally get out of the situation I’d been trapped in all those years, but it only got worse.
One time they threatened to inject me with heroin”
Marie*
“He told me he would look after me and he loved me and he had a big house.
“He would host orgies and people would pay a lot of money, sometimes 12 couples, and he would film me dressed in dominatrix outfits.
“I refused to drink, so one time they threatened to inject me with heroin instead.
“I’d seen the film Trainspotting and I knew I couldn’t let it happen so I tried to run away but he found me and told me he missed me and brought me back.”
Eventually one of her abuser’s wives discovered Marie, and helped her escape.
Marie says: “She thought I was having an affair with her husband, so I just told her everything. She cried and hugged me and said she would help me.”
Marie was taken to a Salvation Army safehouse, where she remains today.
For the first time in her life, she found herself in a place where she was truly safe, however, adjusting to her new life was not easy, and she initially slept with the bed against the door, too fearful to trust anyone.
The Salvation Army’s support workers played a crucial role in helping Maria rebuild her life, and they supported her through the process of having the breast implants removed.
Marie says: “They saved my life. I’ve been treated with respect and for the first time in my life I have a chance of some sort of normality.”
Looking back on her ordeal, Maria believes that the couple who initially brought her to the UK had likely exploited others in the same way.
She’s focusing on rebuilding her life, but hopes to one day be strong enough to support the police bringing them to justice.
While it’s an ever-evolving and changing crime that can be hard to track, when it comes to tackling the issue, public awareness of the issue is key.
Lauren adds: “We’re definitely getting more calls and more people need our support.
“I think people would be shocked to know how prevalent it is around them without them even realising.
“We do training across schools and businesses and quite often people think initially modern slavery isn’t something they’ve ever encountered, but by the end of the training people are reporting incidents they’ve seen.
“A lot of the calls to the helpline we’ve received are from individuals – members of the public, or professionals – who are concerned about something they’ve seen, so it’s really important we raise as much awareness of the issue as we can.”
If you suspect modern slavery activity, you can report it to the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700, call The Salvation Army’s confidential, free referral helpline on 0800 808 3733 or the police on 101. In an emergency always call 999.
* Names have been changed.
