Man enslaved girl for five years

WASHINGTON, July 16 (UPI) -- A former Maryland man extradited from Nigeria pleaded guilty Wednesday to enslaving a teenage girl from that country for five years, U.S. officials said.

George Udeozor, 52, formerly of Darnestown, Md., is to pay the victim $110,000 and faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, the U.S. Justice Department said in a news release.

Udeozor went to Nigeria in 1996 and used his oldest daughter's passport to smuggle the then-14-year-old Nigerian girl to his home in Maryland, federal prosecutors said. He and his then-wife, Dr. Adaobi Stella Udeozor, used the girl as an unpaid domestic servant and child care provider for their six children for about five years. The girl also was sexually abused and was not provided an education, prosecutors said.

"George Udeozor violated the prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude, which is a bedrock principle of American law," said Rod J. Rosenstein, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland.

James A. Dinkins, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore, said forcing a girl into servitude and inflicting physical violence "is simply intolerable."

Adaobi Stella Udeozor, 49, of Darnestown, was convicted on federal charges in November 2004 and was sentenced to 87 months in prison.