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25 years' jail for man who murdered sex worker Eunice Osayande

14:25 28/01/2022

A young man has been jailed for 25 years after he was found guilty of the murder of a Nigerian sex worker in Brussels in June 2018.

Eunice Osayande was stabbed to death by a client on Rue de Linné, Schaerbeek, near Brussels-North station. The perpetrator, identified only by his initials SG, was 17 at the time of the murder.

Osayande, who was 23 when she was killed, was brought to Brussels by a ring of human traffickers, with the promise of housing and work in Europe.

She and a group of other young women were threatened, raped and forced to undergo rituals to convince them to be loyal to their captors.

Once in Brussels, Osayande was put in a derelict apartment and forced into prostitution. She owed not only €45,000 to be smuggled into Belgium but weekly rent for the housing.

Sentencing SG to 25 years in prison on Thursday, judges pointed to "the extreme violence of the acts" and "ruthlessness" displayed by the perpetrator. Osayande had been stabbed nine times in the head and chest.

The judges also took into account the fact that the victim was "alone and isolated" from other sex workers in the area and described the attack as "senseless and gratuitous" and an "intolerable violation of respect for human life".

Osayande’s death sent shock waves through the community of sex workers in Brussels and especially the red light district in the northern quarter.

It led to demands that safety be improved and that the municipalities of Saint-Josse and Schaerbeek create clear legal guidelines for the sector and its offenders.

The City of Brussels, meanwhile, chose to name a new street connecting the Quai des Péniches and Quai de Willebroeck after Osayande in recognition of all the women victimised by sexual violence and femicide.

Photo: Ophélie Delaruzée/Belga

Written by The Bulletin