Couple accused of human trafficking and prostitution racket fail in legal bid to spend Valentine's Day together

Lawyers for Flortina Ciurar, 35, and her 26-year-old boyfriend Petru Balogh said they wanted to share “quality time” on the most romantic day of the year.

But a judge ruled that a complete prohibition on any contact between the pair while on bail must remain in place.

Ciurar and Balogh, both of Hugh Street in Belfast, deny charges of controlling prostitution for gain, brothel keeping, human trafficking and money laundering.

Inquiries began in June 2022 after a woman informed police she had fled from the defendants.

She claimed to have been lured to Northern Ireland from Romania with the bogus offer of a job working for Amazon.

On arrival, however, the woman was allegedly told that she would be working as a prostitute.

Balogh paid for her flight, collected her from the airport and brought her to an address in south Belfast to carry out sex work in order to repay her debt, prosecutors told a previous court.

Police mounted a surveillance operation and located two more suspected prostitutes at the property.

Financial inquiries revealed that large sums of money had passed through a bank account said to be linked to Ciurar and controlled by her partner, it was claimed.

They also allegedly paid for several adverts on adult websites.

Balogh and Ciurar have been on bail since last August, under strict orders not to contact each other.

They have already been refused permission to be together over the Christmas period.

At Belfast Magistrates’ Court today they mounted a further joint application to vary the no-contact terms for a get together next week.

Ciurar’s barrister, Sean O’Hare, said she and Balogh simply wanted to be allowed to meet on Valentine’s Day.

He described it as the most special and romantic day of the year for those in a relationship, and stressed his client has no other network of support in Belfast.7

“They would even agree to meet in a police station for a couple of hours, if that would ease concerns,” Mr O’Hare added.

Opposing the application, an investigating detective revealed that three new witnesses have come forward in Romania.

District Judge Steven Keown denied the defendants bid to be allowed to meet up, on the basis that the prohibition remains necessary and appropriate.

He said: “That situation does not change for a period of a couple of hours, even on Valentine’s Day.”