Mr Ediozi Odi on Wednesday was sentenced to 6 life sentences and an extra 129 years added to the sentence in a South African court, according to South Africa independent.
Odi who was convicted of sex trafficking and rape was found guilty on 24 out of the 29 charges brought up against him. He was sentenced to three life sentences on three charges of human trafficking and three extra charges on a three-count charge of rape.
Mr Odi also had two accomplices, Nomsa Hlalele and Luke Botha. Although they were charged, the two accomplishes were given lighter sentences. The accomplices were charged with possession of hard drugs.
During the investigations carried out, they discovered that Odi’s victims were girls from poor families. Odi had a brothel which he pretended was a shop. He would find young girls looking for greener pastures and lure them into prostitution. The girls told the court how they were forced to smoke a drug called “rocks”, which is a drug that was manufactured by Odi. Odi then raped the girls to teach them the tools of the trade as an initiation into the sex trade.
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The girls starved as they were deprived of food to eat and they were not paid cash for their prostitution but instead were given more drugs as a form of reward. The girls weren’t allowed to leave the brothel and all the money went straight to Odi who was the master of the brothel.
A 14-year-old teenager who had been there for a year was rescued by the police when the brothel was raided after they had gotten a tip that Odi was going to move the girls to another place. It was at the brothel that the suspect was apprehended by the police.
Judge Natvarlil Ranchod, the preceding judge of the case, said the court viewed the case as a very serious offence and therefore Odi’s appeal against his sentence was rejected.
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