35-year-old Todd Barkau was indicted last Wednesday in Missouri, charged in connection with training and trafficking the girl he dubbed “Mistress Alisha” to be a dominatrix for 5 years, starting when she was 12..
She’s the daughter of the woman living with Barkau at the time in suburban Kansas City.
Authorities looking for him sent his picture to agencies including the local FBI. Buffalo agents recognized the background in the photo as a local mall, which 7 News has learned was the Fashion Outlets in the Town of Niagara.
Agents went to the mall and did not find him. But they spotted his car, waited, and arrested him once he returned to his vehicle.
Barkau was working in construction in the immediate vicinity of the mall, and had lived in the area for several months.
Authorities have also charged the victim’s mother, who allegedly knew and approved of Barkau’s alleged business. She is also being charged.
Although this case stems from Missouri, similar problems are occurring in Western New York. And authorities say you can help authorities break these cases by reporting suspicious behavior.
Elizabeth Fildes from the Erie County Sheriff’s Office offers these pointers:
“Do you see people shut in all the time, do you see them leave work, can they leave on their own or do they go in large groups, does a van pick them up?”

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA - Jose Navarrete, pled guilty to human slavery, Wednesday. The Mexican citizen was accused of harboring aliens, faking an alien registration receipt, a social security card and re-entering the country after he was deported.

According to a federal complaint, Navarrete made Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants sleep in box trucks and shacks in Immokalee. He also charged them for food and showers, and didn’t pay them for work they did on a farm.

Jose Navarrete faces up to 37 years in prison.

Chinese woman, Hongmei Madole, 32, has pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking Chinese women to Kansas, USA and exploiting them as prostitutes in three massage parlours.  Although she could face up to 20 years in jail, the preliminary estimates in her plea agreement suggest she could in fact only serve 8 months. To read more on this story, please visit KansasCity.com, by clicking here.

The UK home office has launched a poster campaign with the stark warning “Walk in a punter, walk out a rapist.” The posters will be piloted in men’s toilets in Westminster and Nottingham. This is latest attempt by the UK government to tackle demand for trafficked women, by raising doubts in the minds of men who use prostitutes, as to whether the women they have sex with are there of their own free will. “Trafficking is a vile and evil trade and sex buyers must be made to think twice about the consequences of their actions,” said home office minister Vernon Coaker.

To read more about this story, please visit Reuters UK by clicking here.