A former Canberra brothel operator who raped prospective employees under the guise of training has admitted he also trafficked an underage girl interstate for sex work.
In October last year, a jury found Bradley Lester Grey guilty of 14 counts of rape and six counts of committing an act of indecency.
On Thursday, he pleaded guilty to an additional count of transporting the underage girl for sex work. Grey maintains he is not guilty of the rape and indecency charges.
The prosecution read several statements from Grey's victims on Thursday, with many pleading for Chief Justice Helen Murrell to sentence him to a long term of additional imprisonment. The woman who was trafficked by Grey when she was underage said she was a "vulnerable" and "gullible" teenager at the time who didn't have anyone looking out for her.
"He knew that, and took advantage of that," she said in her victim impact statement. "He convinced me to do something I shouldn't have done."
She said she had struggled with mental health issues since Grey trafficked her, and became uneasy when she saw people who looked liked him in the street.
"I still have [negative] thoughts and they will most likely never go away - I have Brad to thank for that," she said in her statement. "[Justice Murrell,] please don't let Brad out [of jail] to do this to anyone else."
Another of Grey's victims said seeing a therapist had become her "standard routine" after she worked at his former brothel, Mitchell Mistresses. She said her hair frequently fell out from stress, and she had lost the ability to be confident.
Another woman said she felt "disgusting" after Grey assaulted her during a two-hour "training" session in the brothel's "VIP room", but he told her she had to do it in order to be prepared for sex work. The woman said in her victim impact statement, "Why should he be free, when I'm still not free?" The court previously heard Grey lured young, desperate women to work at the brothel with the promise of big pay cheques.
When they arrived, he'd set them up an online profile, before taking them into the brothel's VIP room and raping and assaulting them.
He did this under the guise of training, a jury found - which none of the women expected would include sex. Any consent they did give Grey was negated, because the sex was framed as a condition of their employment.
In court on Thursday, Grey's defence barrister, Beth Morrisroe, submitted that he didn't humiliate or degrade his victims and his crimes weren't entirely motivated by sexual gratification.
There were some instructional elements to the training, Ms Morrisroe said.
Grey will be sentenced at a later date.
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