Student tells court of being forced into sexual slavery

SYDNEY - Crying quietly in the witness box, a young Thai woman told a Sydney court today how she was forced into prostitution the night after she came to Australia.

Her passport confiscated, she was locked in the bedroom of an inner-west brothel with her first customer, she said.

"I was afraid that he was going to hurt me, therefore I let him have sex with me," she told the court.

"I couldn't go anywhere else, I was locked in."

The 22-year-old, who cannot be named, testified at the District Court trial of three people accused of forcing her into sexual slavery.

Ngoc Lan Tran, 52, and Sally Cui Mian Xu, 41, have each pleaded not guilty to three sexual servitude charges and one of trading the student as a slave.

Alleged brothel manager Lin Qi, 27, has pleaded not guilty to three sexual servitude charges.

The court has heard that the woman was studying law in Bangkok before coming to Australia, where she expected to work in a Thai restaurant.

But after arriving in Sydney on December 21, 2002, she was allegedly forced to work in brothels run by Tran and Xu.

She told the court that Tran -- who was known to her as Ah Lee -- took her passport and drove her to an Annandale brothel on December 22.

Using a dildo, Ah Lee showed her "what I had to do with customers", she told the court.

"I said I didn't want to do it, I wasn't meant to come here to do this type of work.

"She said, 'You must do what you are told because I have paid for you to be here'."

Ah Lee paid $A200,000 ($NZ220,000) to the Thai woman who brought her to Australia, the student told the court, and she would have to work off the debt.

"She said now I have no choice ... I have to work for her, I have to obey what she tells me."

The woman told the court she was afraid of a Vietnamese man at the brothel, who was armed with a length of wood and threatened to hurt her if she was disobedient.

She was not allowed to leave the brothel and was given no food on her first day, she told the court.

When she protested about a customer who refused to use a condom, Ah Lee told her: "It's your duty to make the customer happy".

Another client forced her into anal sex, telling her: "Your boss tells me I can do this with you", the jury heard.

Afterwards, she told Ah Lee she was in too much pain to keep working but was sent back upstairs for the next customer, she said.

On Boxing Day, she begged her first customer for help and threatened to kill herself.

Tran then transferred her to a Marrickville brothel run by Xu, the court heard.

The Associated Press reported the 22-year-old student broke down in tears and fled the courtroom on Wednesday as she prepared to testify.

The trial continues tomorrow before Judge Anthony Blackmore.

- AAP