AN ALBANIAN man arrested in Birmingham has been convicted of forcing a young woman to work as a prostitute and to hand all her earnings to him.

Bekim Rrahmani, of Alum Rock Road, Alum Rock, had denied a total of 22 charges, including 15 of raping the young woman and four of indecently assaulting her.

The jury at Warwick Crown Court could not reach verdicts on the rape allegations, but found the 41 year-old guilty of living off the proceeds of prostitution, controlling prostitution for gain and harassment.

The court heard that the woman earned between £500 and £1,000 a day.

The case has chilling similarities to a shock Eastenders storyline involving troubled teenager Whitney Dean being exploited for sex.

The hard-hitting BBC1 story culminated in a special ten-minute episode filmed as part of the Comic Relief telethon to raise awareness of how vulnerable women are forced into prostitution.

During the trial against Rrahmani prosecutor Samantha Crabb told the court the alleged offences took place over a six-year period until the young woman finally escaped from his control after two earlier attempts to flee.

The pair arrived in Birmingham in the back of a lorry when the woman was aged 19 in January 2001 after Rrahmani, who had first forced her into prostitution in Albania, had arranged their illegal entry.