A sex worker who was kidnapped and raped while being held hostage for two terrible days broke her legs and back when she jumped out a sixth-floor window in an attempt to escape, prosecutors said yesterday. Benjamin Gaston and Johnny Jackson have been charged with kidnapping and raping the 28-year-old woman, who was first held hostage in an apartment on W. 92nd Street and Columbus Avenue on November 12th around 4 a.m.
Prosecutors said that Gaston, who allegedly called the woman to start things off, stole her cellphone, money and identification. They say he hit her and held a pillow over her face, telling her, “You’re not leaving the apartment — you’re working for me and making me money.” The next day, the woman was taken to another apartment on W. 149th Street where there were six or seven additional men waiting to have sex with her, including Jackson. Gaston told her, "You'll do what I say here."
The woman tried to escape however by using her jacket as a rope from the sixth floor apartment—unfortunately, she fell to the ground, breaking both her legs and back.
Jackson told cops he was a dupe in the whole thing: “A guy I know as Mike asked me if he could use my spare room to run his girl out of and make some money. I told him he could use the room in my apartment and he agreed to give me part of the profit,” Jackson said in his statement. “He brought a girl over and they stayed in my apartment from Tuesday at about 3 a.m. until Wednesday evening,” he added.
“My client is an honorably discharged Marine — that’s all I feel comfortable saying right now,” Jackson's lawyer said. Both men are charged with kidnapping, sex trafficking, criminal sex act, rape and sex abuse. Gaston is also charged with assault. “The facts of this crime are truly heinous - these defendants are accused of holding a woman hostage in order to essentially enslave and prostitute her,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. added.
A suspected prostitute was on Monday killed by unknown people in Mufulira after servicing her clients.
Mufulira District Commissioner Beatrice Miti has confirmed the death of Charity Kadaka whose cause of death is not yet known.
Miti said Kadaka’s body was discovered by friends in the morning.
Miti said it is suspected Kadaka was strangled and that the assailants also tampered with her private parts that indicated signs of bruises.
She said when they took the body to hospital, they met the deceased’s mother, who identified her saying she stayed in Ndola and not Mufulira.
Mzuzu Police Station Spokesperson Sergeant Maurice Chapola confirmed the death of Bertha Mwamulika Banda of Kankhomba village, Traditional Authority Kanyenda in Nkhotakota District.
In October 2012, Police in Mzuzu also found the dead body of another 22 year old Commercial Sex Worker at Thandeka Rest House at the same Old Town.
Police then arrested 40 year old Staff Sergeant at Moyale Barracks Symon Msowoya on allegations that he strangled the sex worker. Msowoya is currently on bail pending trial but is back to work.
According to Chapola, the woman complained of body pains in the early hours of 1st February 2013 but her friends later saw her at the pub’s counter taking beer in the company of a man believed to be her boy friend.
“It is alleged that…later she disappeared with the man… to Room number one where she was found lying dead the next morning. The identity of the man who was last seen with her is yet to be established,”Chapola said.
Steve Constantinou is accused of murdering Johanna Martin, also known as Jazzy O, on October 11 and stealing $33,000 worth of jewellery from her.
Mr Constantinou had been facing charges of theft, alongside a murder charge, but a Supreme Court directions hearing into the matter today heard the theft charges would not be pursued.
He has denied any involvement in Ms Martin’s death.
Crown Prosecutor Mark Rochford, SC, told the court he expected the trial to last about three weeks.
Theo Kassimatis, for Mr Constantinou, told the court there were no significant pre-trial issues to deal with.
Police are investigating after a sex worker was severely beaten in a street and suffered knife wounds.
The woman was reportedly attacked in the rue du Commerce, near the Luxembourg central railway station, around 6pm on Sunday.
According to police, she was struck by two fellow sex workers before beind held. She was then beaten by a man and received knife wounds. Her three attackers fled the scene. The victim has been hospitalised. Anyone with information about this incident is urged to call Luxembourg police on 113.
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