A Romanian pimp who lured a young girl to the UK before raping her and forcing her to work as a prostitute has been jailed for ten years in prison.

Cezar Murariu befriended the 18-year-old, dubbed Natalya, in northern Romania last summer and promised her a job in London, buying her a ticket to the UK.

However, when she arrived he took her to a flat in Cricklewood where he raped the girl, who was a virgin, and then took her to another flat and forced her to work as a prostitute. She was told by Murariu he would tell her family she was uncontrollable and voluntarily working as a prostitute unless she complied.

However, she managed to send a text message to her family telling them she was in trouble and they contacted London police who arrested Murariu.

Yesterday Murariu was founbd guilty of rape and two counts of controlling prostitution for gain at Southwark Court, and sentenced to ten years in prison.

A British man who brought two Thai prostitutes to Somerset to work in the sex trade has been jailed for two years.

Andrew Wallace brought the women, neither of whom could speak English, into the UK, helped them apply for visas, then advertised their services on his website.

Taunton Crown Court heard how Wallace set up liaisons for the women and split the proceeds with the pair, who were given accommodation in Weston.

Laurence Wilcox, defending, told the court neither women was coerced into the UK, and both were established prostitutes who came on their own volition. He also said that, when interviewed, both women said that Wallace had treated them well.

Judge Graham Hume Jones told Wallace: You and everyone else must understand that trafficking is regarded very seriously and is a serious offence under the Criminal Justice Act. He added: The aggravating feature of this case is that there were two women, but a number of mitigating features were that they were in their mid 20s, wanted to come to this country and were already working as prostitutes.

Three Rumanians have been jailed for trafficking a teenage girl to Britain and forcing her to work as a prostitute on the streets in East London.

Vasile Oaches, and Vasile Maris were convicted of trafficking for sexual exploitation and controlling prostitution, while Gheorghe Mihali was found guilty of controlling prostitution.

The gang befriended the 19-year-old in Romania and promised to find her a job in London. The girl arrived in September by car with the men and two other girls, only to be forced to work as a prostitute. They threatened her with violence and intimidation and forced her to hand over all the money she made.

Vasile was jailed for a total of two-and-a-half years, Maris three-and-a-half years and Mihai 12 months.

A shopkeeper has been fined £53 for selling pornographic magazines on the bottom shelf of his store.

Saeed Ahmed who runs News World in Kirkcaldy was shocked when police came in and told him he was being charged and that the magazines would be taken away as evidence. However, he admitted a charge of indecent display at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.

It is the first time in at least ten years that someone has been prosecuted under the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981.

Police were tipped off by the Front Page Campaign, which is opposed to the early sexualisation of children by the media. Amy King, who founded the Front Page Campaign, said: The pictures are very unsuitable for children – it's a public place, they should at least have a frosted cover or something.

King founded the campaign group last year, in opposition to the easy accessibility and visibility of pornographic magazines. It now has 2,000 people on its mailing list and Facebook page. She said: The media plays a big part in the premature sexualisation of children. People are going in and out of shops all the time with these things on display and it desensitises us to what's inside.

She added: I hope this will send a message to other shopkeepers, but I don't think a £53 fine is a deterrent at all. I am sure he makes a lot of money out of these magazines and £53 will be neither here nor there. It is a big disappointment.

Two women who ran a brothel which earned almost £500,000 were told by a judge that it was a model for how such a business should be run if it was ever made legal.

Monika Campbell and Lisa Gaskin ran the 133 Club in Leeds under the guise of a luxury massage parlour between March 2005 and September last year.

Leeds Crown Court heard that the pair were meticulous in their running of the business keeping accounts, reliably paying income tax and rates and arranging for health advice and condoms for the women using the premises.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Scott Wolstenholme said that there was no exploitation of the employees or nuisance to the public and if brothels were ever legalised it may be the way you were running this business may be the model of how it should be done.

However, he added: The fact is, it is illegal. Parliament has not legalised brothel keeping. You knew it was illegal but carried on making a good living out of it and here you are now in the crown court.

The judge said that he did not see the need to jail them, particularly as they would be facing draconian confiscation proceedings and they were given a 12-month community order with 50 hours unpaid work.

Judge Wolstenholme told them the confiscation hearing fixed for September would mean they would end up having all your realisable assets seized where appropriate.