Man sentenced for making teen girl a slave in Germantown
By Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer 10/8/08
George Udeozor, 52, had fled to his native Nigeria after police raided his Germantown home in 2001, authorities said. He and his wife, Adaobi Stella Udeozor, a Montgomery County physician, were accused of smuggling the girl in from their native country by using their daughter’s passport in 1996. They told the girl that they planned to adopt her.
Instead, they held her as a slave, prosecutors charged. She was ordered to cook and clean and to baby-sit for the Udeozors’ six children. The girl also was forced to work in Adaobi Udeozor’s Optimum Care Medical Clinic. The girl, unidentified in court papers, also was repeatedly raped by George Udeozor, officials alleged.
After years of abuse, the girl called police in 2001, according to court records. George Udeozor fled the country, leaving his estranged wife to face trial on her own. She was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Both Udeozors were ordered to pay the girl more than $110,000 each as restitution.
George Udeozor was extradited from Nigeria in February and pleaded guilty shortly thereafter.
Andrea Powell, is the executive director of the Fair Fund, a D.C.-based anti-trafficking group. She said that up to 30 women are rescued from the sex trade every month, Powell said. And sex workers are only a fraction of those smuggled, Powell said.
“The problem is these people don’t just walk down the street asking for help,” Powell said. “One of the challenges in the District is that there is no specific law to address trafficking.”
Udeozor is at least the third person convicted of human smuggling in the D.C. region in the past six months, Powell.
2 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Oct 8, 2008
Marc D. Clark: "The Fair Fund has innovative programs with DCPS as well as international efforts. They may be important advocates to push for local legislation. Are there sample laws from other cities that might help? It seems like locally theses stories are about relatively wealthy couples from the developing world who bring someone over and exploit them as maids. Is that a typical human trafficking scenario? How is that different from au pair girls?"POSTED Dec 3, 2008
Angela: "Please,the Udeozor's and others trificking poor ones should be punished severely,NO MERCY.Stella is very wicked.She has money and refused to help the girl.Child abuse should stop!"