For the crimes of human trafficking, exploitation of child prostitution, and child pornography committed against a person under the age of eighteen, the Budapest-Capital Regional Court sentenced the defendant of the first degree to 7 years imprisonment and 7 years of prohibition of public affairs, and his former partner, the defendant of the second degree, to 5 years imprisonment and 5 years of prohibition of public affairs.
The court banned both defendants - the first degree for 7 years and the second degree for 5 years - from exercising any occupation or other activity in the course of which they would be educating, supervising, caring for, treating, or otherwise having a relationship of power or influence with a person under the age of eighteen.
According to the sentence, the defendants, who had previously lived together as partners, knew the minor victim. The defendants were aware that the victim was under 18 years of age when, in September 2017, they saw her on the street, pushed her into a car and took her to an apartment in Kőbánya, where they told her that she would have to work as a prostitute to pay off her family's 500 thousand forints debt to them.
The defendant of the second degree threatened to assault the victim and her family if she did not cooperate with him. The defendant of the first degree took sexual photos of the victim, who was 16 at the time, and uploaded them to a website advertising sexual services. The defendants kept the victim under their constant supervision, and he was not allowed to leave the residence or other accommodation on his own. Although the victim could have occasionally sought help or escaped, the threats and abuse she suffered from the defendants left her in a vulnerable position and her fear of them prevented her from seeking help.
On 1 November 2017, the victim finally escaped from the defendants and reported the case to the police. Between 23 September and 1 November 2017, the girl provided sexual services to clients on approximately 60 occasions and handed over at least 720,000 forints to the defendants.
The judgment is not final, as the prosecutor, the defendants and their lawyers have appealed against it.