Four on trial accused of Govanhill sex trafficking

Three men and a woman have gone on trial accused of trafficking women into Scotland from Slovakia for prostitution.

The accused Vojtech Gombar, 61, Anil Wagle, 37, Jana Sandorova, 28,and Ratislav Adam, 31, deny the charges against them at the High Court in Glasgow.

Prosecutors allege that women were brought over from Slovakia and held in “slavery or servitude”.

The allegations span from 2011 to 2017 mainly centring on flats in Glasgow's Govanhill.

All four are accused of 'conspiring to commit crime of trafficking people for exploitation and trafficking in prostitution.”

Gombar, Sandorova and Adam are also charged wit compelling women to work as prostitutes and managing a brothel. They are alleged to have told one woman they would make her homeless unless she worked as a prostitute and threatened another with violence.

The charge claims they did “discuss plans to purchase or obtain control and ownership of women” from Slovakia and elsewhere in the UK.

The accusations are said to have been “aggravated by a connection with serious and organised crime”.

The trial is expected to last for a number of weeks.

Defence counsel for the four – who live at a number of addresses in Govanhill – have pled not guilty on their behalf.

There has been no evidence led in the trial, although a jury has been picked.

Lord Becket told the jurors: “We will be depending on things that are happening in Slovakia and we are using technology which usually works, but sometimes breaks down.”

The trial continues.

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