Domestic servitude: Osarobo Izekor appears in court

Osarobo Izekor appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court

A man has appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court charged with requiring a woman to carry out forced or compulsory work.

Osarobo Izekor, who is 33 and from Castlereagh Place in east Belfast, has been charged under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act.

He is originally from Nigeria and was accused of committing the offence in a period between 2016 and 2017.

The accused was remanded in custody because of a "risk of flight."

Mr Izekor's lawyer told the court on Wednesday that his version of events was that he had allowed the alleged victim to live rent-free since she arrived in the UK relatively recently.

He was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of domestic servitude in what detectives said was the first arrest of its kind in Northern Ireland.