A MAN has been remanded in custody accused of keeping a woman as a domestic slave at a house in Belfast for nine months.
Osarobo Izekor (33) is the first person to be prosecuted in Northern Ireland for alleged domestic servitude offences.
Izekor, a Nigerian national with an address at Castlereagh Place in east Belfast, appeared at the city's magistrates court to face a charge of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.
The alleged offence occurred between December 31, 2016 and October 1, 2017.
But the court heard he has put forward an alternative version of events of helping the woman while she attempted to settle in the UK.
Defence counsel said: "His case is this lady was living with him rent-free, he was providing her with a roof over her head."
Izekor was arrested on Tuesday by detectives from the PSNI's Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit. Documentation and mobile phones were seized during searches at a property in the city.
A 25-year-old woman detained in Scotland as part of the same investigation has been brought to Northern Ireland for questioning.
Police said the alleged victim escaped the property where she was living around 16 months ago, alerting a member of the public who contacted the authorities.
Handcuffed and dressed in a grey sweatshirt, Izekor spoke to confirm that he understood the charge against him.
The defence lawyer told the court the woman was now living at a protected location unknown to the accused.
It was also disclosed that Izekor, who worked for a customer services company, plans to move to Glasgow with his family. His pregnant wife, who is from Sierra Leone and employed by a major bank, has already moved to Scotland with their two children, the court was told.
Cash sureties of £3,000 from Izekor and his brother were offered in a bid to secure his release.
District Judge Fiona Bagnall refused bail and Izekor was remanded in custody to appear again by video-link in four weeks.
