Terrible price of a trade in misery

Terrible price of a trade in misery

The brutal death of a man outside a brothel has exposed a global sex trafficking network. Nick McKenzie investigates.

One of the first things Senior Constable Rachel Dunkinson noticed as she stepped out of the police car was the blood. It was just after midnight on a warm summer evening in February 2009 and she was responding to a call about a fight at Madam Leona's, a Melbourne brothel specialising in Korean and Chinese prostitutes.

The blood was on the hands and face of a hulking Asian man holding a small iron bar who said he'd been robbed. He was standing next to a car with a smashed windscreen. As Dunkinson's partner ordered the man to drop the bar, the Senior Constable glanced through the smashed driver's side window and saw a Caucasian man who looked about 30. His face was covered in blood, his clothes drenched red and his head slumped to one side.

''None of it made any sense'' ... Marco and Deanna Papo.

''None of it made any sense'' ... Marco and Deanna Papo.Credit:Angela Wylie

Dunkinson asked the Asian man whether he'd used the bar to strike the driver's head. ''I don't know,'' he said.

As she tried the door and discovered it was locked, the man inside lifted his head and began groaning. His mouth opened, and she saw it was filled with blood.


''Mate, can you talk? What is your name?'' Dunkinson's voice was now strained with urgency. The driver's head slumped backwards and she noticed his right hand twitching. She was running out of time. ''We are getting the ambulance right now. If you can hear me, we are getting you help.''

She reached through the smashed window, trying to find a pulse. Dunkinson then unlocked the door from the inside and her partner took over the search for vital signs. She turned back to the Asian man, who said his name was De Jun Zheng, and arrested him. He wouldn't be told it was for murder until several hours later.

Around the same time, police confirmed that the man in the car was Abraham Papo, the 27-year-old son of a close-knit family.

Some of the circumstances of the killing appeared typical for a homicide squad inquiry: there were whispers of broken hearts - Papo had fallen for a Korean student before his death - and the man who delivered the fatal blows had criminal convictions. But in the hours after the crime scene was secured, something very unusual happened.

An Australian Federal Police officer contacted the homicide squad to ask about the case. He explained he was from a special taskforce investigating one of the most secretive and lucrative trades: the trafficking of mostly Korean and Chinese women to Australia to work as sex slaves.

Six hours after Dunkinson arrived at the brothel, two uniformed police delivered what is known in policing slang as a ''death knock''. The house they approached was only 30 minutes' drive from the seedy inner-city patch that hosts Madam Leona's and has one of the highest number of brothels per capita of any Australian suburb. But it could have been a world away.

Deanna and Marco Papo chose to live in a suburb filled with football ovals, schools and young families to raise their three boys. They made their modest brown brick home a place where family and culture was valued, if not treasured. Here, neighbours call each other by first names, and follow the progress of each others' kids and sports teams.

The fateful knock on the door came on what was meant to be a joyous morning for the Papos. Marco, 67, a former watchmaker and jeweller, was due out of hospital after a near-fatal illness and Deanna, 59, and their boys - Mark, 37, David, 35, and Abraham, 27, had been looking forward to welcoming him home. Instead, Deanna opened the door to two grim-faced police officers. What followed remains a blur.

''None of it made any sense,'' she says. Hami, her nickname for Abraham, was a boy with a quick, big smile that hid a serious streak. After being bullied at school as a shy, tall Jewish kid, he had blossomed into a young man popular with girls and who took great pleasure in helping others. Her Hami loved his family and collected personalised number plates and baseball caps. He also held down a regular job as a crowd controller.

Why would he steam into a busy brothel and - as alleged by the man who killed him - swear, assault a man and steal several mobile phones, a landline and possibly some money from the brothel's reception desk? If his aim was robbery, why did Papo, as Zheng later claimed, go to his car and get the iron bar that was wrestled from him and used to beat him to death? And why did Zheng, instead of calling the police, follow Papo out of the brothel and attack him and his car even after Papo had locked the doors and tried to drive away?

The Papos couldn't prove it, but the more they learned, the more they suspected Abraham was killed outside the brothel because he had discovered something terrible was happening behind its walls.

Homicide squad Detective Senior Constable Matt Kershaw was working the graveyard shift on February 12 when, at 1.39am, he got the call about a suspicious death in South Melbourne. Kershaw's colleagues describe him as fair but tough, a popular and committed officer with a knack for making complainants feel they are being listened to, no matter how minor the crime they are reporting.

After several years in uniform and as a suburban detective, he was posted to the elite homicide squad. The detective declined to be interviewed for this story; however, some of his investigation can be reconstructed from parts of the police file.

Fifty minutes after receiving the call, he arrived at the crime scene outside Madam Leona's and began a ''walk-through'', looking for any potential evidence and identifying the witnesses who needed to be interviewed. The senior manager of Madam Leona's, Lin ''Lisa'' Gao, told Kershaw she was resting when she heard a commotion, ran to the reception area and discovered the brothel had been robbed of some of its phones. Gao said she dialled triple-0 and headed outside to see ''Fatty'' (her name for De Jun Zheng) ''trying to stop'' a car ''from driving off''.

''I hang up thinking that we have the offender and may not need to call the police. My intention was to retrieve any stolen items and that would be it … we are dealing with a brothel business and do not like police to attend,'' she said.

According to Gao, Zheng's attack on the ''very slowly'' moving car was ferocious. ''Fatty [was] smashing the windscreen of the vehicle and the front driver side.''

''Fatty was very angry … He was just raging and swinging his arms.''

Gao described Zheng as a ''friend/client'' who was unemployed, although another witness - one of the brothel's clients - described Zheng as the ''shop manager'' of Madam Leona's.

Zheng had his own story for Kershaw. He said he worked as a driver for the brothel's prostitutes, receiving $10 for every drop-off. He said he knew Papo because he had visited the brothel two or three times before ''to book a lady''. But on the night in question, Zheng said Papo had stormed in, sworn, punched him at least once in the face and grabbed mobile phones and, possibly, some money from the till. Zheng said he chased Papo to his car where he got the tyre lever, which Zheng said Papo used to strike him at least once after Zheng demanded the return of the stolen phones. Zheng said he wrestled the lever off Papo, and struck Papo with it at least once. When Papo dived into his car, Zheng said he was concerned he was retrieving another weapon. ''Therefore I hit him … again. I hit him again. Then I hear his car started to leave … I thought he was trying to escape. I said, you cannot run away … so I hit the windscreen with the metal stick. I cannot understand why he wanted to hit me because I am not an enemy to him,'' Zheng told Kershaw.

According to a forensics report, Papo suffered tissue damage on both arms, a fractured forearm, a shattered jaw, a broken nose, fractured skull, broken ribs, crushed trachea and a ''large bilateral pneumothoraces'', an injury normally suffered in car accidents, which involves the collapse of both lungs.

It wasn't just the state of their son's body or smashed-up car that led the Papos to suspect another, more sinister, explanation lay behind their son's death. According to his brother David, in the hours before his killing, Abraham had driven to the Oakleigh police station and told an officer he was gravely concerned for the welfare of a 20-something Korean woman he had dated named Kathy (not her real name), who was being threatened and had had her passport taken from her. He'd told his mother he had to sort out ''a problem'' involving Kathy, but was more forthcoming with David: he told him Kathy was a sex worker who was in serious trouble.

At 7.43am on February 12, roughly six hours after his brother's death, David signed a police statement saying that before an agitated Abraham had driven to South Melbourne, he had told him he had called Kathy on her mobile and heard her crying and ''screaming in pain''. Abraham told David that Kathy had been taken to Sydney and forced to work against her will.

''He said she was being raped and beaten and [told me] that he had to help her,'' David's police statement says. ''He [Abraham then] said that a male had then got on the [Kathy's] phone and threatened him. The guy had said that he would chop him up if he came near her. He told me he then rang an Asian guy that runs a brothel in South Melbourne and had an argument on the phone about Kathy.''

David also told police he had called Kathy on her phone and, in broken English, she had confirmed that she was with ''bad people'', was being hurt and was unable to talk.

In October 2009, months after Papo's death, Kershaw visited the Papo family home. Deanna remembers looking at Kershaw's face as he sat at their kitchen table and feeling her stomach drop. ''We were waiting to hear he's been charged. But he [Kershaw] just looked at me. And I knew.'' The Papos were told there would be no charges arising from their son's death.

(A letter Kershaw wrote to prosecutors in April 2009 states that ''given the explanation of Zheng … it was the belief of senior investigators that a defence of self-defence may be open to Zheng''.)

The Papos were also forced to confront fresh information about their son. A small amount of crystal methamphetamine, or ice, was found in Abraham's car and in his body after his death. (David says Abraham infrequently took party drugs.)

Then there was the discovery that the quiet Asian girl who had lived with Abraham in the Papo house for a few months, often studying English books on his bedroom floor, worked in a brothel.

''To me, she was just a lovely girl. She … didn't dress the part, she didn't do the make-up,'' Deanna says. ''I look back on it now and I think that, even back then, Hami was trying to look after her.''

David told police he gave his brother about $2500 shortly before his death after Abraham told him he was trying to help Kathy. When police searched Abraham's car at the crime scene, they found a neat bundle of money. It was about the same amount given to Abraham by David, casting doubt on the theory that Papo wanted to rob the brothel.

The Papos were also left pondering one of the last things that Kershaw told them when he delivered his bad news: people convicted of sex trafficking often did longer sentences than those convicted of violent crimes. Deanna says the comment left them even more certain that ''Hami's death'' could shed light on a much bigger picture. ''It is to do with the girls, too. It's taken our son's life but this is bigger than his death, as well. We realise that.''

For a man who claims to derive his income by running a taxi service for brothels, Zheng lives very well. His friend, brothel manager Gao, told police he ''frequents the casino quite a lot'', while a source who has seen his city apartment says it has expensive furniture and flat screen televisions.

The answer to how he can afford his lifestyle may reside in records archived in courts nationwide. They depict Zheng as something of a journeyman of the illegal sex trade.

In late 2004, after being convicted in Queensland for ''knowingly participating in provisions of prostitution'', he flew to Adelaide where, in early 2006, he was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery and ''inflicting sexual servitude''. A brief newspaper report on the police case against Zheng said it involved him ''imprisoning a student in a brothel as a sex slave'', allegations that were dismissed by a judge in mid-2006. In November 2006, Zheng pleaded guilty to running an illegal brothel in Adelaide, was fined $1196, and flew east.

His police record hasn't affected his ability to work in the brothel game. Nor has the fact that Zheng, along with his associate Gao, are long-standing targets of two AFP investigations into allegations they are members of a syndicate that trafficks women from China, Taiwan and Korea to Australia, where they are forced to work as sex slaves.

Two witness statements recently filed by the AFP in the prosecution of the only person so far charged in connection to these two operations (and who cannot be named for legal reasons) reveal what allegedly happens to women working for Zheng and Gao. Both allege that, while still in Asia, they were tricked by the syndicate into borrowing money to obtain student visas and fly to Sydney to further their education.

Upon arrival in mid-2009, they were taken to an apartment in Melbourne's CBD, told they could not leave and ordered to work as prostitutes at Madam Leona's to repay their debts.

The man imprisoning them was Zheng, who went by the name Kevin and had a fearsome reputation. ''[I was told that] Kevin [Zheng] had killed someone at shop 59 … this made me very fearful of him, even before I met him … [Zheng] asked to be called Lao Da, which means big boss in Mandarin. I was scared of Kevin and realised his role was to enforce the rules of the gangsters.''

When one of the witnesses tried to flee, Zheng blocked her passage. ''Kevin was responsible making sure I could not be away from the apartment alone [even after] pleading with him to let me go … I started feeling worried and very, very scared.''

Zheng also allegedly sexually assaulted this witness, watching her as she showered and, on other occasions, fondling her breasts.

Yet Zheng's unwelcome advances were nothing compared with what unfolded behind Madam Leona's walls. One witness described her first encounter with a client: ''It was hurting me so much … but I couldn't push him away because he was so fat. I wanted him to stop. I had tears in my eyes. He looked at me but he didn't stop. He just kept going.''

The women were forced to work double shifts, six to seven days a week, and engage in grotesque and unsafe sexual practices. All the money they earned was handed to the receptionist at Madam Leona's.

''I never received any money from my work at No.59 … I did not know how much money I made or how much money I had paid off my debt. I was just counting down the days.''

Both witnesses identified Zheng as an enforcer working for his boss, Gao. They also said they were coached about what to say in the event the brothel was raided, and believed that if they caused trouble, they would be deported or they or their families harmed.

About the time immigration officers raided Madam Leona's in late 2009, one of the women was sent to work at a Heidelberg brothel. Both were then moved to Sydney, where they worked at two other brothels connected to the syndicate.

When the AFP launched co-ordinated raids on all the brothels last November, Gao and Zheng had left Madam Leona's (it now has a new name and new management). Six months before, Gao applied for a Victorian government licence - a process which requires an applicant and their associates to have ''good repute with regard to character, honesty and integrity'' - to operate the Candy Club brothel in Richmond. Gao refused to answer any specific questions sent to her lawyer by the Herald but issued a denial of any impropriety. Her licence was approved on May 10 last year and renewed four months go.

The coronial inquest into the death of Abraham Papo was scheduled as a brief ''summary hearing'' in July, meaning no witnesses would be called, Zheng was likely to be identified as the man who killed Papo,the decision not to charge him acknowledged and the file closed forever.

A few months before the inquest, the Herald - which came across the case while researching human trafficking - began a joint investigation with the ABC's Four Corners into Papo's death, passing on details (including Zheng's criminal history and the fact the AFP held significant information about him) to the Papo family's recently appointed barrister, prominent human rights advocate Julian McMahon.

On the eve of the summary inquest, McMahon wrote to the State Coroner, Jennifer Coate, requesting an immediate adjournment and a new investigation. Papo's extreme injuries, McMahon said, ''were not consistent with Zheng's account of self-defence'' but ''consistent with Papo being maliciously beaten to death''.

McMahon also said police hadn't done enough to answer what the barrister claimed was a critical question: was Papo killed because he had sought to help Kathy escape a criminal syndicate involved in the trafficking and abuse of women?

On July 18, Deanna, Marco and David watched as Coate adjourned the hearing and requested that McMahon ask state authorities to consider the need for a fresh investigation. The Victoria Police recently began making fresh inquiries about the case, including seeking access to anything relevant held by the AFP. The Papos have also been told that, for the first time, Kathy has been located by policing agencies and is helping authorities.

Deanna and Marco want to see answers to some of the broader questions arising from the case, including why regulators and policing agencies aren't sharing more information to tackle suspected criminals in the brothel industry and deny licences to those implicated in offences such as sex slavery.


The family hopes the injustice of their son's death will be addressed, but also believe it could be the source of a legacy. If he failed on that night to help Kathy, Abraham's death may yet help save other women.

''Our son's death is my country's unknown shame: the trafficking of women to become sexual slaves,'' Deanna wrote recently. ''I have come to learn this industry is a blatant law unto itself. We wait for justice. How does this happen in Australia?''

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