A 63-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years in a closed penitentiary for holding captive and sexually exploiting a 17-year-old minor girl for several days. Being in the Central Market of Chisinau, the individual forced the girl to go to his home in a village in central Moldova where, under the pretext of helping her take care of her sick mother, IPN reports.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the 63-year-old man, who was periodically on the territory of Chisinau municipality, was looking for potential victims among children from socially vulnerable families in order to recruit and sexually exploit them for non-commercial purposes.

Thus, being in the Central Market of the capital city, he managed to recruit a 17-year-old minor girl whom he forced to go with him outside the city and sheltered her at his home, under the pretext of helping her take care of her mother, who was sick. The convict, however, held the girl captive for several days.

According to the statements of the minor victim, the man beat her daily and forced her to have sexual intercourse. She tried to flee on the third day, but was caught by the perpetrator and locked in his house again. She managed to escape when she got hold of the defendant’s mobile phone, from which she wrote her mother a message on social networking sites, and the woman alerted the police.

Prosecutors classed the defendant’s criminal act as child trafficking. The sentence can be appealed.