Prostitutes likened to AFL draftees in trial

The Age
Kate Hagan
April 24, 2009

A BARRISTER acting for a man accused of bringing five Thai women to Melbourne as sex slaves has compared their plight to an AFL footballer being drafted to another club.

Len Hartnett told a Supreme Court jury yesterday it would need to consider whether the women had been treated as “commodities”, as prosecutors claimed.

“The coach walks into the training room … at the Brisbane ground, the Gabba, and says to a 19-year-old, who was drafted two years ago from Melbourne: ‘Son, next year you won’t be here, you’ll be playing for Fremantle.’ Well, what is he? A commodity? That’s one way of expressing it,” he said. read more..