Birmingham city centre brothel: pair jailed for exploiting trafficked women

A man and woman have been jailed after police raided a brothel being used to exploit trafficked and vulnerable women in Birmingham.

Deli Sun, aged 49 and Xiao Qin Zhong, aged 48 have now been jailed for their part in running the brothel.

The pair, from Berkley Street, Birmingham city centre, pleaded guilty at Birmingham Crown Court in December.

A police investigation was launched after West Midlands Police were made aware of a brothel with links to other locations in the country as well as trafficking, prostitution and sexual exploitation offences.

On 9 July last year officers and support staff from Women’s Aid attended the address on Berkley Street to a sex worker who had previously been found working elsewhere.

Sun opened the door when officers arrived at the property, but once inside they found that two women, one being Zhong, were living there and it was clearly being used as a brothel.

In each room there was a red light, a bed and other evidence of sex work.

Five phones were seized in total on which conversations were found about arranging sexual exchanges with potential clients, detailing the sexual services on offer, prices and the location of the brothel.

Wording from an advert used to lure girls from China to work in the UK as a sex worker was found on the WeChat messaging app.

Zhong and Sun made significant amounts of money by exploiting trafficked and vulnerable women. They spoke about money freely on WeChat– one message detailed Sun sending £16,000 of ill-gotten gains to his own wife back in China, £13k of which was then sent back to Zhong.

Zhong, who not only managed the brothel, but participated when other women were unavailable, was sentenced to 10 months behind bars, while Sun was sentenced to seven months. The pair were jailed on Friday (4 February) at Birmingham Crown Court.

What did police say about the operation?

DC Tammy Newman-Smith, from the Force Priorities team, said: “These two were part of a conspiracy directing and controlling the activities of sex workers who have been lured over from China and trafficked throughout the UK.

“They had absolutely no regard for the wellbeing of the women they controlled, with many of the women being visited by up to 10 clients a day. They treated them simply as objects for their own personal financial gain.

“I’d like to thank everyone who ultimately helped us bring them to justice and we’re pleased that they’ve now been jailed for their crimes.

“While we remain committed to rooting out this often-unseen crime and bringing offenders like these to justice, we also work closely with Women’s Aid, Anawim and a range of other agencies to safeguard vulnerable women and get them valuable help and support.”

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going.