Russian sex slaves freed after three years
Two young women who had been kept underground as sex slaves for more than three years, during which time one of them gave birth twice and became pregnant a third time, have been freed by police, Russian news reports said today.
The women, now 21 and 17, disappeared in September 2000 after going to a discotheque in Ryazan, 125 miles southeast of Moscow.
The search for them was called off after a few months and the girls, whose names were given only as Lena and Katya, were presumed dead.
They were found by police in a bunker constructed under a garage and their alleged captor was arrested, newspaper and television reports said.
Lena, the 21-year-old, is eight months pregnant, the reports said.
According to the newspaper Kommersant, the pair described how a man and woman had invited them to drink vodka and go for a drive.
They said they fell asleep and later woke up in a dark room with just two beds and a table.
Lena and Katya said they were not beaten but were repeatedly raped by their captor, whom reports identified as 53-year-old Viktor Mokhov.
Lena gave birth to two boys during her captivity and the infants were abandoned at the doorstep of an orphanage, Ryazan police chief Vladimir Tsypkov said.
At one point, Lena managed to scribble a note asking for help and stuck it inside one of the children’s nappies, but it was found by Mokhov, who has been arrested on charges of kidnapping.
One of the former captives said that Mokhov began to take them out for walks last autumn, one at a time and only at night.
One of them managed to pass a note to someone while out for a walk.
Kommersant quoted police as saying Mokhov, a factory worker, built the bunker under a garage about five yards from his house.
In the small opening to the bunker he placed a thick metal door with a safe lock, it said.
