Govanhill trafficking trial: Where are the men who bought the victims?

Where are the men who took advantage of these vulnerable women and teenage girls, those who used them for sex and bought them for sham marriages?

It is a question asked by the national trafficking support service, TARA, which is based in Glasgow.

Bronagh Andrew, Operations Manager for TARA, the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance, said: "It's increasingly frustrating over the years and it's increasing frustrating as a service working with vulnerable women - everyone wants to hear about the women and what they've been through.

"Nobody is going after the guys and saying 'What attracts you to doing this? Why did you do this? What did you know?'

"It's all on the women who have been through terrible things, things that have a lasting impact on the rest of their lives."

READ MORE: Govanhill trafficking gang was family who sold women like cattle

During the Govanhill trafficking trial at Glasgow's High Court, women described being sold to Asian men for sham marriages with a view to securing visas.

Other victims of the Slovakian and Nepalese gang said they were forced into prostitution by the traffickers.

In some cases, the men who bought the women are named.

The Evening Times visited the address of one of the men believed to have been involved in the purchase of a teenager.

l-r, top-bottom Anil Wagle, Vojtech Gombar, Ratislav Adam and Jana Sandorova

He has since moved on but a neighbour described him as a polite, friendly and helpful man who lived quietly.

READ MORE: Govanhill trafficking gang: How did victims fall prey to twisted traffickers?

Detective Constable Kirsty Lee of Police Scotland said that one of the men involved had been deported.

She added: "We identified who the potential husbands were but there was an insufficiency of evidence to charge them in this case."

Bronagh believes there is no way a man would not know a woman he was purchasing sex from was vulnerable.

She said: "If you go on websites [where men rate sex workers] you can see punters quite clearly describing trafficked woman and they don't care.

"[The police] will get phone calls from punters with concerns but they'll still have had their money's worth before they make that call.

"So there's no such thing as an 'ethical John'."

READ MORE: Govanhill trafficking gang: How did victims fall prey to twisted traffickers?

Bronagh says the first woman she supported in her role at TARA was a young Russian woman who asked a man for help.

She added: "She told him what was happening and he didn't say anything, he still went ahead and then he went downstairs and told the pimp.

"He walked away, probably back to his wife and family, and she was whipped with telephone wires because she spoke out.

"Some of the men will make a call and think of themselves as a knight on a white charger but they always, always get the service they paid for.

"Those men are invisible in all this.

"In the court case we're looking at the perpetrators, we're hearing from them, we're hearing from the women being exploited, but where are the voices of those who have raped those women?

"Because by definition if you're trafficked you have not given consent for any of this.

"And that is a real frustration."