The case, reported yesterday in Belfast, of a group of elderly men who trafficked and forced into prostitution a group of vulnerable women, has struck a chord. Likely because it’s hard for people to believe that a group of seemingly ordinary local men in their 60s and 70s, living on their doorsteps, could be capable of such callous evil.
Courtney Smith waived her right to anonymity to tell BBC News NI about the abuse she endured at the hands of the four men, after one of her abusers, Oliver James MacCormack, 71, was sentenced on Thursday. He is the last of the men to be convicted, and was handed down a seven-year sentence on Thursday, with half to be spent in jail and half on licence. He has already spent almost three years in jail. The pensioner was convicted on 40 counts with dates spanning seven years from 2015 to 2022.
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