Lithuanian loverboys in the police spotlight: traces from the hostel led to Panevėžys

“This is not an excursion for you,” said a Panevėžys resident who had invited his friend to visit Vienna. And to be more convincing, he immediately threatened to have a good understanding of chemistry, a powder that can completely destroy the human body.

The stories with a happy ending happen only in fictional movie scenes, the reality is unfortunately different. However, everyone must be held accountable for their actions: two Panevėžys residents who involved a girl and her friend who lived in a village in Aukštaitija were convicted of prostitution not only for profit from their prostitution, but also for human trafficking.

The Panevėžys Regional Court has ruled that Romualdas Tylas, 47, who has been convicted twice, and Povilas Navalinskas, 32, who was once convicted by law, are found guilty: Judge Evaldas Vanagas convicted both of them. men to eight years in prison.

Almost two years ago, Tyla was convicted in another drug smuggling case against a group of accomplices, so the sentence that was imposed combined with the previously imposed sentence and he will have to spend 17 years in a correctional facility.

Of the two convicted, the court awarded a victim € 10,000 in non-pecuniary damages, as much as the girl involved in the prostitution mud asked for. At that time, his girlfriend dropped out of the lawsuit.

There may have been more convicts in this case, but officials were unable to prove a man’s guilt, so during the pre-trial investigation their suspicions were ruled out, and another: Panevėžys resident Marius Riška agreed to cooperate. with the police and helped officials reveal not only this crime, but others as well. R. Tyla and his colleagues brought a large quantity of drugs from Lithuania to Lithuania. They had to be withdrawn from sale in Estonia.

It was during an investigation into possible drug trafficking that officials discovered that a girl had been taken from a village to Austria to legally work as a prostitute in a shelter in central Vienna. And then in Switzerland.

Kristina Mišinienė, director of the Center to Combat Human Trafficking and Exploitation, says that this case perfectly illustrates the prostitution business behind the scenes: the girls preparing for sale were carefully selected: one gave birth to a boy. at the age of fifteen, the other orphan.

“The unpleasant truth about legal prostitution is that you always need new and fresh bodies, the demand cannot be boring,” said K. Mišinienė. – Traffickers soon feel in the “business” niche: there is no need to look far for vulnerable people who want to escape oppressive poverty and the cycle of violence against women and girls. It takes many years of diligent work by law enforcement to bring such crimes to justice, to bring the organizers, the perpetrators, all Loverboys, the assemblers army to justice. ”

Will be around all the time

The officers of the Panevėžys County Chief Police Commissioner and the Panevėžys Regional Prosecutor’s Office who carried out the pre-trial investigation in 2016. At the end of the 19th century, a secret investigation was carried out, during which an attempt was made to find out a group of people who smuggled large amounts of drugs to Lithuania. As they listened to the possible conversations of the suspects at the time, they heard not only encrypted conversations about drugs, but also about a pretty girl, whom the men called just a “work horse” who had agreed to go abroad to work as a prostitute.

This girl was not chosen at random: she was well known to P. Navalinskas, who showed exceptional attention to a young single mother. The girl, who lived in her parents’ house in poverty, earned just a few hundred euros at the Lietkabelis factory in Panevėžys, and had no specialty, saw no outlook on life, so the attention shown by the charming and extremely confident young man impressed her when necessary. The girl made no secret that she appreciated the boy’s extremely warm feelings, and the boy did not reject her, so when he offered him a “new life,” she agreed, though not immediately, after all, even promising 30 one thousand. Eur salary per month! Well, what if you need to work as a prostitute in Germany, well, what if you have to have sex with a few or even a dozen men a day, but you will be with him all the time, without whom you could not imagine your next life.

According to the data of the case, before the trip abroad, P. Navalinskas, R. Tyla and M. Riška lived with their girlfriend in the house of their friend Saulius Lukšė in Panevėžys; it was a guarantee that no one would convince him that he was probably not making the biggest mistake of his life. While the girl was waiting for the trip, the men did not let her leave the house, they bought food and other necessities themselves. And when it dawned, when the convicts had settled all the affairs and received the money for the initial life abroad, they bought bus tickets: the girl was taken to Vilnius in a car driven by S. Lukšė.

Here, P. Navalinskas got on the shuttle bus with his girlfriend, the one he really trusted and couldn’t imagine more life. But only after leaving Lithuania did he learn that he would not go to Germany, as he had been promised many times, but to Vienna, the capital of Austria. Why, the man did not explain it to him. In other words, the little ones will know that they will sleep more peacefully.

A cheat for a friend

After a long and exhausting journey, the girl and P. Nalivauskas settled in a hotel and, two days later, in a rented apartment. It was provided by an unidentified Russian-speaking man who trusted the Lithuanians in Vienna. And then the “preparatory work” began: the girl was taken to a photographer, where a completely nude photo shoot was held, after which she had to visit doctors and obtain a certificate that she did not have a contagious venereal disease. Also, the girl was wallpaper and was working officially at the Club Relax Lounge in Vienna.

And then the true face of P. Navalinskas was revealed: the man demanded to work at the club as much as possible, and took the money earned as soon as he returned home. She earned 70 to 700 euros per day. But the collector was not satisfied with such amount: from this salary it was necessary to pay not only the rent for the house, to feed, but also to pay a part to the remaining accomplices in Lithuania.

R. Tyla, a friend of P. Navalinskas, who remained in Lithuania and expected much more money, offered him an additional salary; he just needed to convince the girl to find friends who could also engage in prostitution. But a rural girl who worked as a prostitute did not even enter those languages, so she suffered not only psychological but also physical violence. In the end, he failed: he found a friend on Facebook who grew up in an orphanage and offered to go to Austria to visit her.

“I’ll see you, look how beautiful it is here,” the prostitute persuaded her colleague, who persuaded her colleague.

Such proposal impressed the girl who lived in poverty as needed, so she was soon contacted by P. Navalinskas, who lives in Panevėžys. She took over the bus ticket to Vienna, then took her to the bus station and, unexpectedly, even gave her € 20 for travel expenses. In addition, he was given a mobile phone with which, as it turned out, P. Navalinskas was communicating with the rest of Lithuania. The girl also brought a forged passport to Austria, which contained a photo of P. Navalinskas, but the first and last name of the others. So this tried in advance to hide from possible inconveniences.

Will take care of everything

As soon as he went to Vienna, he felt as if he had entered paradise: P. Navalinskas not only showed him the Austrian capital, but also bought clothes and had various drinks. But soon the guest came across an unpleasant reality: A friend admitted that she was involved in prostitution here, that she works in a legal brothel every night. And the collector who lives with her stated that the guests would also have to work; after all, this trip to Austria is not an excursion.

P. Navalinskas, who until then seemed pleasant, became a different person: he began to explain that this person’s work would not be complicated, because she would find clients to go to their rented houses or hotels. A reward of 110 euros was promised for one hour of sex, but, as the collector emphasized, all the money will have to be given away; after all, he will take care of everything and buy whatever is needed.

The girl, who was in an unenviable situation, initially refused, but immediately received threats: P. Navalinskas began to explain that he knew where to buy chemicals that completely destroy the human body, so that there was nothing left of it. Forever The scared girl decided to follow the colleague’s instructions and was already taken to two clients during Christmas. He immediately gave the 220 euros earned to P. Navalinskas.

The girl refused to go further to provide sexual services, although she was threatened with retaliation, she maintained her position. Deciding that it was better not to deal with her, P. Navalinskas bought a bus ticket and sent the guest who did not benefit to Lithuania.

Betrayed friends

And soon P. Navalinskas and a prostitute who worked in a brothel decided to leave Austria: the girl made much less money than expected. However, they did not go to Lithuania, but to nearby Switzerland: the girl was officially registered as a prostitute here and worked at three different strip clubs and brothels for about three months. In the end, he decided to run away from the partner, so he had no choice but to leave Switzerland as well.

And just a year later, P. Navalinskas was arrested when he returned to Lithuania: a search was conducted at his home, during which officers found 23 rounds of ammunition. At the time, Panevėžys forensic scientists had already detained his partner R. Tylas, who was trapped with his friends when he brought over a kilogram of psychotropic substance MDMA from the Netherlands to Lithuania. Together with R. Tyla, M. Riška became involved, who from the first interview began to cooperate with officials and revealed to them not only how the drugs were brought to Lithuania, but also how the village girl was lured into prostitution. abroad.

At that time, a girl who had had to work as a prostitute in Austrian and Swiss brothels had already returned to Lithuania. She told officials about the deception and abuse, and her friend also spoke. At that time, P. Navalinskas and R. Tyla categorically denied that they were involved in the girl’s transfer, R. Tyla even explained that P. Navalinskas did not know anything, that M. Riška was interested in knowing if he had friends abroad. with those who could. live with your law-abiding friend. Tyla said she had contacted Alex, a friend who lives in Vienna, who had promised to help.

“I think Ms. Riska’s testimony about my role in the prostitution business is a lie, she only says it because officials have acquitted her,” Tyla said.

Aggressive for lack of sex

Mr. Navalinskas, who had seduced the young woman, said that he had gone to Austria with his “acquaintance” and when he had been there for about a week, he met Alex’s friend, Kristina, who allegedly offered him prostitution.

“She agreed with herself, and later, accompanied by translators, arranged the documents, went to the doctors, the police, and then started working at the bar,” said P. Navalinskas. – She served 3-5 clients per day, the fee for services was set by the owner of the bar, who also took part. The remaining money, from 40 to 300 euros, brought it to the house and put it in an envelope. We live together on this money: we buy food and clothes. “

Mr. Navalinsk assured that he also had “activities” in Austria: he was involved in the robbery. And it was said that M. Riškai had once sent 800 Eur to Panevėžys of his “earned” money: it was an outstanding debt. He had also sent money to the mother of a girl who lived together and took care of the prostitute’s son.

“I have never used violence against her, I don’t think she has ever been vulnerable; if there were conflicts between us, it was only because of her own aggressive form and lack of sex,” said Navalinskas.

She also denied involvement in prostitution with a friend who had been persuaded to visit Austria, that she knew what her friend was doing, but that she did not want to work in this dirty job and no one forced her.

“When I sent her to Lithuania, I gave her another 50 euros,” said the colleague.

The man admitted in court that he left Austria for Switzerland at the suggestion of Alex, who speaks Russian, and promised that in this richer state it would be possible to earn more from prostitution.

“But I didn’t live here for very long. I went to Germany when a girl in prostitution found a local man who lived here and went to live with him,” he said.

When asked why the girl, recognized as the victim, says the exact opposite, Navalinskas said: “She was probably angry that we broke up and decided to take revenge on me.”

She ran away and found a new job

At that time, the victim claimed that while working at a shelter in the Austrian capital, he had to follow all Navalinsk instructions, including taking all the money he had earned.

“They only gave me 30 euros a day, they said that would be enough for food and transportation,” said the victim. – He sent part of the money to Lithuania – it is necessary to pay the people through whom we came to Austria. I couldn’t even deduct any savings from my earnings, I just asked a few times to send money to my mother. “

The girl said she realized she would not earn 30,000. During the month Eur, as promised, refused to go to the brothel, but P. Navalinskas began to threaten, and once broke up.

“I could not oppose him, I could not continue working, I was very afraid of him,” the girl involved in the swamp of prostitution said that she could not even ask the police for help because she did not speak any foreign language. Out of fear, she fraudulently invited her friend to visit her.

“When we later went to Switzerland with Mr. Navalinsk, I also had to work in brothels, but here he was always with me, very much in control of me and immediately took the money I received, he repeatedly violated me,” said the girl who worked. as a prostitute. that if she had lived alone in Switzerland, she would not have had to pay for the living space, but since the collector had benefited from her “business”, she would have had to pay the rent.

“After working for several months, I decided to escape from P. Navalinskas; after that I found a normal job and, when I made money, I returned home,” he said.

The Loverboys Generation

Kristina Mišinienė, director of the Center for Combating Human Trafficking and Exploitation (KOPŽI), which dealt with girls involved in prostitution, says that this criminal case examined at the Panevėžys Regional Court perfectly illustrates the business behind the scenes. of prostitution.

“The girls who are preparing for sale have been carefully selected: one who has become a single mother and abandoned at the age of fifteen, the other is an adoptive girl,” she said. – The coordinators organize all the necessary documents to become a registered prostitute in the Austrian and Swiss brothels. No local official is bothered by a disturbed person blindly listening to his “hosts” from the remote villages of Eastern Europe, who fear his beatings.

The unpleasant truth about legal prostitution is that you always need fresh new bodies, the lawsuit cannot be boring. Traffickers soon feel the “business” niche: they do not have to look far for vulnerable people who want to escape oppressive poverty and the cycle of violence against women and girls.

To solve such crimes, bring the organizers, the perpetrators, the entire army of Loverboys prosecutors to justice, the police need years of diligent work, the testimony of cooperating foreign colleagues, as well as women. Congratulations to the Panevėžys prosecutors and police officers who have coped well with this task: There are traditions of fighting trafficking in women in this county.

However, these are isolated cases that do little harm to the international prostitution “industry”. Until we challenge the rights of the lawsuit, “I paid for it, I can do whatever I want,” we will not see sex shoppers as the main engine of prostitution: hopelessly tracking the baffling annual law enforcement statistics of hundreds of trafficked women, dozens of their buyers, a colleague or a trafficker.