SEX TRAFFICKING police swooped on a Plaistow property, arresting a man and a woman in their 40s following allegations that they forced a child into prostitution.

Officers from the Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command made the arrests following allegations by a 19-year-old woman that she was brought to the UK from Bangladesh in 2007 when she was 16 years old by her mother and uncle.

Police said she claims to have been forced against her will to work as a prostitute for approximately two months, at which point she refused to carry on and was sent back to Bangladesh.

The woman was brought back to the UK in May this year and lived in a brothel with her relatives.

Fearful that it was only a matter of time before she would again be forced into prostitution, she ran away and contacted the police.

Det Sgt John O’Brien of the Met’s trafficking and prostitution unit said: “These are extremely serious allegations and involve a serious breach of trust every child deserves from their relatives. Trafficking is modern day slavery and it is almost unthinkable that in 2010 children are brought to the UK as sex slaves.”

The pair were arrested on Wednesday (October 20) and have been bailed to return to a central London police station in December.