Hungarian Sex Traffickers Jailed after Using University of Sussex Halls of Residence as Makeshift Brothel

Two Hungarian pimps have been jailed after it was discovered they were running brothels from a British university campus.

Csaba Safian, 33, and Sandor Mohacsi, 35, were part of a sex trafficking gang who lured 53 women from a poor region of Hungary tot he UK and forced them to work as prostitutes.

They were reportedly making £20,000 a week from the women, who were holed up in hotels, brothels and even a university halls of residence.

A court heard that the pair ran the brothels in the dorm at the University of Sussex's Falmer Campus, East Sussex, during the term holidays, between March 2011 and October 2012.

Eastern European women, aged as young as 17, were recruited from deprived parts of Hungary and flown to Britain on EasyJet and Wizz Air flights, with promises of work in the massage industry on arrival in the UK.

They were then put up in hotels around Gatwick, in flats across the South East, Bristol, Norwich, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff and Glasgow, as well as in the University accommodation.

The women were advertised on sex websites as 'fresh meat' and were forced to have sex with up to 15 men a day in the makeshift brothels.

During the trial at Hove Crown Court, Prosecutor Amy Packham recounted the experience of one Hungarian woman, who travelled with Safian to Eastbourne to work in the brothel.

The court heard that she had agreed to see ten clients per day for £100, but on her first day, she had sex with more men than agreed.

While the girl was not physically forced to stay in the brothel, she could not afford to fly home and was intimidated into staying. She was chaperoned by gang members when she left the premises to prevent any attempt to escape and was threatened with exposure at home if she tried to flee.

The gang collected £100 an hour, but kept most of the money for themselves, while refusing to return the passports until the women had paid off their 'debts', the court was told.

The sex ring was only uncovered when a building manager at the University of Sussex received an email advertising sex services at the location in March 2011.

He recognised the distinctive blue and yellow curtains from the halls of residence and uncovered the brothel on campus.

A spokesman for the University of Sussex said the gang were using a two-bedroom flat they had gained access to during the Easter holidays, while the student formerly occupying it, was away on a break.

The court heard that Mohacsi, 35, helped to drive the girls between hotels and airports.

Judge Richard Hayward said the women were duped. They were "willing to come to the UK thinking they would better their lives" he said.

Safian and Mohasci were sentence to two years and eight months each, after both defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic women into the UK for sexual exploitation.

Five other members of the gang were jailed in January following a trial.