Traffickers forced mother into prostitution with threats of taking her children. After 20 years, they received suspended sentences
A pair forced a young woman into sexual services two decades ago by taking away her newborn daughter and two-year-old son. The regional court in Plzeň imposed suspended sentences on both.
Traffickers forced mother into prostitution with threats of taking her children. After 20 years, they received suspended sentences
The regional court in Plzeň on Wednesday imposed suspended sentences on a pair who, twenty years ago in the Cheb area, forced a young mother to provide sexual services. The offenders used her two small children as leverage against her, taking them away and threatening that she would never see them again if she did not comply. This is reported by Novinky.cz.
In March 2006, the then twenty-six-year-old woman was going through difficult times. Peter Marcus Felzmann, a fifty-seven-year-old man with German citizenship, and his accomplice Bohuslava Reitmeierová, five years his junior, took away her newborn daughter and two-year-old son. They threatened that the children would never be returned if she did not start earning money for them through prostitution.
Under the guise of her going to Germany, they subsequently forced her to travel across the border. There they confiscated her identity documents and, by force, put her to work in a brothel. After a week, the mother managed to escape from the establishment and hide from her pursuers.
The crime came to light only by chance in 2020. In the meantime, the children had been placed in foster care and the mother failed to recover them. In justifying the verdict, court chairman Tomáš Bouček emphasised that the court had no doubts about the guilt of the defendants. The victim's testimony, which an expert identified as credible, played a key role. Her account was also supported by some witnesses.
Nevertheless, the court did not consider an unconditional sentence. "After twenty years, we cannot imagine that it would be necessary to act on both defendants through direct deprivation of liberty. Moreover, their law-abiding previous life and conduct since committing the offence up to the present day speak significantly in their favour," Bouček explained.
The court also awarded the victim compensation for damages. "Two small children were unlawfully and against her will taken from her, and she has not managed to recover them. This was a direct consequence of the criminal activity," the court chairman added.
Only Reitmeierová attended the main hearing. Felzmann, who lives in Germany, has avoided judicial proceedings. The verdict has not yet become final.
Source: Novinky.cz