Updated 4.05pm

A Colombian sex worker said she earned roughly €2,000 in her first 10 days in Malta but kept none of that money.

The woman said she relied on an additional €1,500 she received in client tips to pay for her living expenses and to send money back to her family.

She had been in Malta for less than two weeks before she was arrested, she told a court on Monday.

The court is hearing the case against eight men and one women accused of human trafficking and running a prostitution ring. 

Monday's testimony followed on a similar hearing one week ago, when other Colombian sex workers testified about how they were flown to Malta, housed and put to work. 

The accused are Luke Farrugia, 36, a self-employed maintenance worker from Birkirkara, Clint Lawrence D'Amato, a cab driver from Gudja, Denzil Farrugia, 19, a food shop employee from Sliema, Alexandra Suhov Pocora,a 32-year-old Romanian from St Paul's Bay, Kane Vassallo, a 22-year old barber from Siġġiewi, Gordon Cassar, a 44-year-old maintenance worker from Kalkara, Luca Emanuele Corito, 21 from Senglea, Dylan McKay, a 30-year old taxi driver from Fgura and Nicolae Efimov, 37 from St Paul's Bay.

Prosecutors allege that the prostitution ring operated a criminal organisation, brought people to Malta to engage in prostitution, then held them against their will at a brothel while they lived off their earnings and laundered proceeds.

All those accused deny criminal charges.

Sex workers caught during the police raids are now being treated as human trafficking victims and are being held at a safehouse. 

Testifying via video conference on Monday with the help of a Spanish translator, the woman said she had worked as an escort in her hometown Medellín “every now and again” to financially support her daughter, mother and grandmother.

She said she came to Malta knowing she would work as an escort and said she knew of the working conditions before she travelled to Malta. 

A WhatsApp chat sharing jobs abroad for escorts

She found out about Malta through a friend, Michelle, who was on a WhatsApp chat group with many other escorts. She described the group as a means to connect escorts with opportunities abroad.

Days before she was due to travel to Malta, she received her flight tickets and travel details through a “private” contact in a WhatsApp chat group set with disappearing messages.

The contact organised her flight tickets, which cost around €3,700 and told her to bring €500 in cash. She would have to repay the flight costs – Colombia to Madrid and then Malta - through her earnings in Malta.

In Malta, she was picked up by a man driving a white car. She later identified the man as the accused Clint Lawrence D’Amato, known by the witness as “Miguel”.

‘Miguel’ took her to a home with basic amenities and rooms. There was another escort living there.

She said she rested for a few hours and then began her sex work later that evening.

The woman said the deal was for her to take 55% of her earnings, once she had paid back the cost of her flight tickets.

Her work rates were set at €50 for 30 minutes and €100 for one hour. She was free to set rates for extras requested by the client, “such as kisses”, and she pocketed that money directly.

She said she would work from 4pm to 2am, and would see around five to six clients daily. Her goal was to work hard and pay off her travel debt quickly, she told the court.

In all, she calculated that she made around €4,000 from the work before the police raids. Of that, roughly €2,000 was for her, though all money except for tip money went to D'Amato.

D’Amato would arrange client bookings for her over WhatsApp. She would leave her earnings on a table and he would collect them every day, she recalled. He was her only point of contact and no clients contacted her directly, she said.

The woman was unable to say where in Malta the house she was living in was, saying she only left the house twice – to send money back to Colombia – and D’Amato had driven her on both occasions.

Her initial plan was to spend two months in Malta. But 10 days into her stay, she was arrested.

She kept her passport at all times but never thought about leaving, she said, as she did not have enough money to purchase a return ticket to Colombia.

Woman said she was never abused

Under cross-examination, the woman confirmed that she was always free to return to Colombia and said she had not been mistreated or abused while in Malta.

Her passport and mobile phone are now being held by the police, she said.

When asked if she had been threatened with deportation, the witness confirmed that the police had not spoken to her until she gave her statement.

Second witness testifie

The court also heard the testimony of another Colombian sex worker allegedly working for the accused.

The 28-year-old had only been in Malta for a weekend before police raided the brothel she was working in. She had four clients in her first two days, she said.

She told the court that she, too, was already working as an escort back in Colombia. She also learnt of Malta through a WhatsApp chat group advertising escort vacancies.

The woman told the court that she was picked up from the airport by D’Amato, who she knew as ‘Mig’.

The apartment she was placed in had four bedrooms: three had large beds with air conditioners and the fourth was where all four women who worked in the apartment slept.

When asked how much she earned, she said she earned €600, but left that money on a table. She was told the money would be provided to them once they left Malta.

Under cross-examination, she said nobody from the police informed her that she was a victim of human trafficking. She also said she was never forced or abused during her time in Malta.

Left the safehouse without protection

The sitting, originally scheduled to begin at 9.00am, was postponed by two hours after the court heard that sex workers being held at a safehouse left that property on their own and caught a bus to Valletta.

Members of the state-run welfare agency Appoġġ then ordered the women to return to the safehouse and be taken to court under police escort, accompanied by Appoġġ members. 

That caused a lengthy court delay and angered the magistrate. 

After hearing a witness explain that the women were free to leave the safehouse without protection, Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech ordered Apoġġ and safehouse organisers to provide an explanation. 

The case resumes on Wednesday. 

AG lawyers Ramon Bonett Sladden and Charmaine Abdilla prosecuted, together with Inspectors John Spiteri, Joseph Xerri and Dorianne Tabone.

Lawyers Franco Debono, Marion Camilleri, Roberto Montalto, Joe Giglio, Michaela Giglio, Charles Mercieca, Kathleen Calleja Grima, Nicholas Mifsud and Etienne Borg Ferranti are defence counsel. Lawyers Lara Dimitrjevic and Stephanie Caruana appeared parte civle.