MALACCA - A 19-year-old girl was locked up, assaulted and forced to have sex with several men whom her captors brought before she was rescued during a police raid at a budget hotel in Taman Melaka Raya here.
The victim, from Sungai Semun, Perak, told police she was battered with a television cable several times and her pictures taken whenever she bathed at the home of a 20-year-old woman, said to be vice ring's leader.
One of her captors threatened to upload her nude pictures on YouTube if she refused to be a hooker.
The victim, in her police report, claimed she was forced to entertain "many clients" even though she was exhausted after every session.
A police team, who had been on the trail of the ring leader, raided the hotel and nabbed three women before rescuing the victim.
In a follow-up operation, police picked up a 21-year-old man in Klebang near here and seized several of the victim's belongings and RM450 (S$184) in cash.
Investigations revealed that the victim was persuaded to come to Malacca by a woman, known as Nabsiah, with a promise that she would be employed at a fast food restaurant here.
However, upon her arrival, she was kept captive in a house and assaulted by Nabsiah and her gang members and told that she would have to "entertain" a list of clients.
Datuk K. Basil, who heads a state government task force to eradicate vice, said state police chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Chuah Ghee Lye had ordered the raid.
"SAC Chuah was concerned over an earlier report that a woman from Malacca had allegedly lured runaway girls and kept them captive here before forcing them into prostitution," he said.
Basil said the task force, set up by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam, would work closely with the police and local authorities to wipe out prostitution in the state.
He said two members of the vice ring were expected to be charged under the Anti-Human Trafficking Act 2007.
On Dec 2, another 19-year-old girl from Ulu Temiang in Negri Sembilan said she was forced to have sex with six men.
The teenager was believed to be among a group of runaway girls that the woman and a male accomplice had lured for prostitution.
Negri Sembilan police later detained the 29-year-old woman and the man at a hotel in Bahau during a raid. Several teenage girls were rescued in that operation.
