Sex worker describes assault on pregnant woman by alleged trafficker

A sex worker has recounted in court how a pregnant woman was assaulted at a Qormi brothel by an alleged human trafficker.

Testifying in the case against 24-year-old Jeremy Borg, who is accused of human trafficking and money laundering, the Venezuelan sex worker alleged that Borg assaulted a fellow sex worker identified as “Cindy”.

The witness said she had feared Cindy was having a miscarriage after she was shoved by Borg during an argument and started losing blood.

“I don’t want to lose the baby,” Cindy had cried out during the argument, according to the Venezuelan woman.

The witness said that when she tried to intervene, Borg, who was shouting and acting “like he was on drugs”, told her to mind her own business.

The sex worker claimed Borg refused Cindy’s request to see a doctor and all the girls at the brothel were warned they would face deportation if they ever reported him to the police.

“That is when I decided to leave. When Jeremy asked me why, I told him that he is a bad person, and I cannot stay somewhere where people are treated so badly. He told me his problem was not with me,” the Venezuelan woman said.

The woman said Borg took Cindy to the airport on the day after the argument.

“I do not know what became of her after that,” she said.

Borg was ‘recommended’ in sex worker chat

The Venezuelan woman, who described herself as an occasional prostitute, told the court how she came to know Borg. She said she was added to a group chat between sex workers while she was looking for work in Spain. The group chat was used by the sex workers to share information about clients who treated them badly, as well as tips about “good” destinations for sex work.

She said Borg’s telephone number was shared in the chat, and was “recommended” as a “good place”.

The woman, who had two young children to support and was unable to legally work in Spain, eventually made contact with Borg.

“I spoke to him over Whatsapp. I sent him a message, introducing myself. He phoned me and told me the money would be divided 50/50…He gave me the prices for the work. 30 minutes cost €60, and it was €120 for an hour. If I wanted and was ready to do it, oral sex without a condom was an extra €30.”

The woman said Borg paid for her flight to Malta, and she was told the €190 cost would be taken from her earnings.

Upon arriving in Malta, Borg drove her to Gozo at night, and she was put to work the very next morning.

A few days later, the woman said she was shifted to a brothel in Gzira.

“He had four houses, I was constantly changing locations. Marsascala, Qormi, Gzira and Gozo.”

The woman testified that she serviced around 40 clients when she was first here in December. Borg would communicate with the clients, then inform her when someone had booked her.

The woman said Borg uploaded pictures she provided to an escort website called Eurogirls, through which clients would make contact.

'I worked, slept in the same bed’

Clients would pay either by cash or Revolut. Cash payments went to her, while Revolut payments went to Borg.

She said the work varied, as sometimes she would see one client a day, and four on another. The women would phone Borg when they were done with a client.

“We slept and worked in the same bed. He did not let us go out after 11pm ‘for our safety’ because we did not know the place,” she said.

After fleeing from Borg in December, the woman said she returned to Malta in May after again running into financial difficulties in Spain.

She and two other women rented an apartment and advertised their services directly on Eurogirls themselves, without Borg’s involvement. Nonetheless, Borg managed to track them down.

“We advertised ourselves on Eurogirls in May. He wrote to us pretending to be a client, then turned up where we were staying, still posing as a client. He was not using the number he used to use, and did not identify himself when he wrote to us on Eurogirls.”

The woman said that although the encounter was not aggressive, Borg insisted that the women return to work for him.

“He started phoning us and sending us clients. He told us he would come pick us up and take us to another location, as otherwise we would no longer be able to work in Malta. We were scared of him,” the woman said.

Matters escalated once again after an alleged fight between Borg and a girl called Danouska.

The Venezuelan woman testified that Borg “threatened to burn the house down” if she failed to stop Danouska reporting him to the police.

In an attempt to calm Borg down, the women booked a taxi and assured him they would be heading straight to the airport to leave Malta.

“We knew there was a police station close to the house, so we asked the Uber driver to take us to the police station so we could file a report,” the woman said.

Magistrate Lara Lanfranco presided.