Just When I Think I've Heard...

...every fucked-up way there is to victimize people in this world, along comes another news story to sucker-punch me in the gut and remind me there's no such thing as being inured to the ways one human can wreak hell upon another.

In case that intro hasn't already made it clear: Trigger warning.

Turkish military police said today that they had stormed an Istanbul villa to rescue nine women held captive after being tricked into believing they were reality TV show contestants.

The women were rescued on Monday from the villa in Riva, a summer resort on the outskirts of Istanbul, according to a spokesman for the military police in the region who carried out the raid. He said the women were held captive for around two months, but refused to provide further details.

The women were led to believe they were being filmed for a Big Brother-type television programme, according to the Dogan news agency and other news reports. Instead, their naked images were sold on the internet by their captors.

The "women," at least one of whom was only 15 or 16, "were told to fight each other, to wear bikinis and to dance by the villa's pool." They were threatened when they asked to be released or to speak to family members; "police stormed the villa after family members complained to police that they were being prevented from contacting the women. The women cried for help when the military police arrived at the villa." Fucking hell.

[H/T to Petulant.]