Nigerian man 'wanted to marry girl he raped and threatened with witchcraft after smuggling her from Africa to Britain'

• Osezua Elvis Osolase, 42, accused of smuggling three children from Nigeria to sell into prostitution
• Alleged to have used African witchcraft to scare girls into obedience
• Teenage girl says Osolase raped her and said he wanted to marry her

A teenager has told a court how a Nigerian man accused of threatening girls with 'black magic' to try and force them into prostitution raped her and said he wanted to marry her.
Osezua Elvis Osolase, 42, is alleged to have imprisoned the teenager - who is now 18 - in a flat for three months and raped her up to three times a week.
The court heard he forced her to call him 'Uncle' and she was deprived of other human contact for weeks before she managed to take his keys and flee.

Osezua Elvis Osolase, 42, is on trial at Canterbury Crown Court (pictured)

Osolase, a former security guard and recycling worker from Gravesend, Kent, is accused of 13 offences of trafficking, rape, false imprisonment and sexual activity with a child.
He is alleged to have smuggled three children from Nigeria to Britain in order to sell them into prostitution in Italy.
He is also alleged to have sexually assaulted the girls - who are now aged 15, 17 and 18.

 

Osolase's alleged victims say he used African Juju magic rituals to scare them into doing as they were told and to prevent them from running away.
Juju refers to traditional West African religions involving objects of superstition and witchcraft.
The churchgoing teenager, told a jury at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday that Osolase - whom she knew as 'Uncle' - visited her at the flat.

'He said he wanted to get married to me. I felt bad and I felt sad...I felt frightened of him'

She claims he told her he wanted to make love - but she did not want to.
She told the court: 'He said he wanted to play with me and make love to me.
'He said he wanted to take care of me. I didn’t want to have sex and I told him. I told him I didn’t want to sleep with him.
'Uncle took off his clothes then he took off my clothes. He then took a condom out of his wallet.

'He said he wanted to get married to me. I felt bad and I felt sad. I didn’t love him, I didn’t like him and I felt frightened of him.'

The teenager - the third girl to give evidence at the trial - claimed Osolase, who was married to a German national, had helped bring her to the UK.

She eventually managed to get hold of his keys and escape from the flat, the court heard.
But the teenager told the jury Osolase found her in a park nearby and took her back to the flat, telling her: 'Do you think you are clever?'

She added: 'I didn’t run away again because I had no place to stay.'

The trial continues.