A former Premier League footballer has revealed how he was trafficked into the UK to work in the sex trade before signing for a top-flight club.
Al Bangura, 27, was taken to the UK and forced to work as a prostitute, he has claimed.
He left his home country of Sierra Leone at the age of 14, heading for Guinea where he met a French man.
The man was told by Bangura that he was desperate to play football.
Speaking for the first time about his ordeal, he said: "I want to play football and I'm going to school so I don't want to do that.
"I didn't know he had another different intention - to get me into the sex trade."
After they arrived in the UK, Bangura - who would later sign for Watford, playing for the side in the Premier League - was left alone in a building.
He added: "All of a sudden I saw two or three guys come around me, trying to rape me and make me do stuff.
"Because I was young and I was small, I just started screaming. They probably thought I knew what I was there for - obviously I know what I came over here for, I was here to play football.
"I was just crying and proper screaming and I tried to make my way out - I was cold, I was crying, I was shaking, I didn't know what to do, I was all over the place.
"I made my way outside. I didn't know where to start, I thought it was the end of my life."
Eventually he got help for a man who told him to request child asylum at the Home Office.
By then he was 16, and was given a right to say in the UK for two years.
Bangura is speaking out to raise awareness of the issues around child trafficking.
He added: "It was so emotional, because after a few months I'd kind of forgotten about what what I'd been through, it had been sad but I ended up coming to a good thing.
"I started meeting people, started playing football and I got the opportunity to join Watford when I was 16 and things just started building up for me.
"It's quite emotional to talk about it now, I'm happy I've got over it, but it's sad for me."
Bangura is not playing for a club at the moment, listed as a free agent following being released by Coventry City.
During his career, the midfielder also played for Brighton & Hove Albion and Blackpool.
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