Caprice Brown, a sex worker, has been sentenced to nine years in prison after luring men to hotels and violently robbing them. Brown targeted her first victim, an Aston Villa football fan, through the dating app Badoo. The 19-year-old at the time invited him to the Jurys Inn on Broad Street, Birmingham, where she arrived with an accomplice.
The men were restrained with masking tape, subjected to physical abuse including being burnt with a hot iron, and forcibly robbed. The attackers used the victim’s stolen bank details to purchase a £1,000 iPhone. Brown later committed a similar crime at the Britannia Hotel in Coventry, along with Karissa Alfrez, now known as Damani Scott-Slue, who was sentenced to six years.
During the second incident, the victim was handcuffed and threatened with scissors while his personal belongings and bank details were taken. Both victims suffered long-lasting emotional trauma. The court heard that these attacks took place amid the Covid-19 pandemic when feelings of isolation made the victims particularly vulnerable.
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Brown, now 25 and with no fixed address, admitted charges of robbery, fraud, and assaulting an emergency worker. Scott-Slue, also 25, was convicted of robbery following a trial. Judge Simon Drew KC condemned the crimes as cruel abuses of vulnerable individuals seeking companionship.
The first victim believed he was going on a date and was caught off guard when Brown and her accomplice turned violent. Police tracked Brown down using online transaction data traced back to her IP address. The second victim, who was attacked after meeting a woman named “Maia” on Tinder, managed to escape despite being bound and gagged.
Both offenders showed signs of troubled pasts; Brown struggled with trauma and complex vulnerabilities, while Scott-Slue had a history of drug use and poor decision-making. Despite lengthy sentences, both were informed they would serve only 40% of their prison terms. This case serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of trusting strangers met online and the severe consequences of exploitation.