Ballymena: '15,000' pages of evidence in case of four people accused of 'controlling prostitution'
There are "15,000" pages of evidence in the case of four people charged with 'controlling prostitution,' Ballymena Magistrates' Court has heard.
The quartet have had their cases adjourned to May 15 to fix a date for a Preliminary Enquiry - the legal step to send the cases to the Crown Court.
Three men - Florin Ripan (52), Gabriel Manuel Orhean (32) and Ionut Duta (27) - and a woman Ondina Cordovan (22) with addresses listed as in Ballymena - are charged with 'controlling' a Romanian woman's 'prostitution'; using 'criminal property, namely money'; concealing 'criminal property - cash'; and entering into an arrangement to acquire criminal property.
Cordovan is also charged with 'brothel keeping'; possessing criminal property and possession of cannabis.
Orhean also faces charges of controlling Ondina Cordovan for prostitution; causing her to become a prostitute and 'domestic abuse' against her.
Orhean is further charged with possessing an incident photo of a child and possession of 'extreme pornographic images'.
Ripan, Duta and Cordovan are on bail.
Orhean (32) was further remanded in custody at prison.
All four appeared at Ballymena Magistrates' Court on Thursday, April 17.
The charges are connected to an investigation by detectives from the PSNI's Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit.
Arrests were made following searches in Ballymena and Omagh on August 13 last year.
A detective constable told an earlier court a "pro-active" investigation lead by the PSNI's Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit focused "on the activities of an organised crime gang involved in prostitution and money laundering offences".
A police officer said a female travelled from Romania and was "initiated into sex work" in June 2023 in the Omagh area.
The officer said a correspondence address for an "adult services website profile link is a Ballymena address" at which Orhean had resided.
The officer said a bank account "belonging to the victim" was registered to Orhean's Ballymena address.
The court heard Orhean had been arrested the day before he was due to be "flown out" to Romania as part of extradition proceedings.
Thursday's court was told there are around "15,000 pages of evidence" in the case.