Oct 4 2011 By Chris Musson
Stephen Craig and Ashleigh Beuken
A VICE ring chief threatened to pour boiling water down a prostitute’s throat during a reign of terror over dozens of women.
Cops revealed Stephen Craig’s brutal intimidation tactics yesterday as he and ex-prostitute lover Ashleigh Beuken became the first people jailed under new sex trafficking laws in Scotland.
The pair admitted moving 14 men and women to addresses in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and Newcastle.
And police involved in the inquiry said they had evidence of threats of terrifying violence which would have been heard if the charges had gone to trial.
The case was hailed by Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland as a “landmark” in the battle against the exploitation of vulnerable women.
Craig, 34, from Clydebank, near Glasgow, was jailed for three years and four months at Glasgow Sheriff Court, while Beuken, 23, from Leith, Edinburgh, got 18 months.
Their gang – who moved women between brothels across Britain but placed them mainly in Glasgow and Belfast – are believed to have been pulling in at least £20,000 a week from the trade.
Property worth £2.35million – a large chunk of it owned by Craig – is now being targeted for seizure under proceeds of crime laws.
A source on Operation Factor, a joint inquiry by Strathclyde Police and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), said last night many of the prostitutes involved were “vulnerable”.
Although they initially worked for Craig voluntarily, they became trapped in a culture of fear. The source said: “Very early on when they started working, Beuken would make it known that Craig was a gangster and knew a lot of the main criminals in Glasgow.
“There’s no evidence of direct violence against the individuals in their statements but there is evidence of threats.
“On one particular occasion, one witness – a Scot – stopped working for Craig and went away to work independently again.
“He coerced that person to come back and work for him again, and when they did, he threatened to pour boiling water down their throat if they ever walked away again.”
The inquiry team raided a string of the gang’s brothels last year in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Belfast.
Detectives found prostitutes who were trafficked from Bolivia, Brazil and Nigeria alongside others from Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Among the women were two students who had become trapped in prostitution because they were desperate to pay off student loans. One, a young woman from Belfast, had been studying medicine at a top Scottish university.
Some of the prostitutes recruited by Craig were transvestites and pre-operative transgender men.
Craig targeted independent sex workers who advertised in newspapers and on websites, the inquiry source said.
He added: “He would tell them he had luxurious flats in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Belfast they could work from.
“It was all very nice during the initial meetings but, after a time when they had been working, more and more pressure would be put on them to take more clients, so he was taking more money.”
Some of the prostitutes interviewed told police they were taking as much as £5000 a week each, with a third going to Craig.
However, detectives found he had not declared any earnings for almost five years.
None of the brothel earnings were paid into his bank and police have been unable to trace where the bulk of the cash went.
Beuken, who started as a prostitute herself, was said to be besotted with married Craig.
He was still living with his wife in Clydebank while the probe unfolded.
The investigation into the gang also uncovered a new method of laundering cash – using pre-paid credit cards.
Sex workers travelling between Belfast and Glasgow would be told to buy Thomas Cook cards.
They would walk into branches of the travel agent in Northern Ireland with thousands of pounds in brothel earnings.
This was paid on to the card – and unloaded by Craig and Beuken in Glasgow.
The tactic meant there was no risk of being stopped at a ferry terminal with a bundle of cash, which could be confiscated under proceeds of crime laws.
Operation Factor began in summer 2010 amid concern from politicians over a lack of human trafficking convictions.
The starting point for police came last June, when concerned neighbours reported a brothel was operating at a block of flats on Clyde Street, Glasgow.
Police raided the address and found evidence a brothel was operating, along with two prostitutes – one a Bolivian woman. She had been trafficked to Scotland via Spain, Dublin and London.
But Craig and Beuken’s involvement only began in the UK, when they recruited women for their business.
Belfast cops raided a brothel in July 2010 and prostitutes there told them it was run by a Stephen Craig, who also ran brothels in Scotland.
After the connection was made, more raids were carried out in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Craig and Beuken pled guilty last month – on the day their trial was due to start – to breaching section 22 of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, relating to the trafficking of people in the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
The trial was expected to last six weeks, with more than 200 witnesses lined up.
Craig’s defence advocate Murdo MacLeod QC claimed yesterday his client had been “naive” and there was “never any pressure, force, threat or compulsion of any kind directed at the women involved”.
Paul Brown, for Beuken, told the court she “had the shock of her life” in custody and it was “abhorrent to her to return to that lifestyle”.
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