A victim of a man who exploited vulnerable young women by supplying them with heroin in exchange for them working as prostitutes has described how their life was upended overnight to become manipulated, controlled and dependent on drugs.
Oliver James MacCormack has been sentenced at Belfast Crown Court to seven years having previously plead guilty to 40 offences, which include charges of human trafficking and controlling prostitution
The victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, said in a statement that MacCormack got them hooked on heroin and "orchestrated it that I became completely dependent on him to get my fix".
They said: "One day I went from being employed in (a company), aged in my early 20s, to overnight becoming an advertised escort, a heroin addict waking up sick every day; and stealing from my family to buy heroin from him.
"MacCormack manipulated me and used coercive control. He would supply me with heroin every day at the same place and at the same time.
"However, if I refused to have sex with one of the sex-buyers he had set me up with, he would not sell me any heroin and would block my phone number, leaving me sick for days.
"With MacCormack, I lost the right to say yes or no as a girl and as a woman.
"Sex with paying customers just became so normal.
"I would wake up every day merely existing and not living.
"I hated MacCormack so much, but he had me needing him because of his heroin.
"I was addicted to heroin for seven years because of MacCormack and, in that time, I was often in trouble with the police."
The victim said they are now free from heroin and feel "stronger than I have in a long time".
"I will never let anyone treat me the way MacCormack did," they said.
"MacCormack came between my mother, nanny and I. I was very close to my nanny and feel like I didn't get to spend the time with her that I should have before her death.
"I'm trying to do the best I can now. I have a great family. I will get through this and not let what MacCormack did to me define me."
