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A pregnant mother-of-two has appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court charged with making a woman carry out forced or compulsory labour.

Precious Izekor, 25, with an address at Castlereagh Place, Belfast, denies the charges.

She is originally from Sierra Leone and was arrested at her mother's address in Scotland on Tuesday.

She was remanded in custody as she was deemed a "flight risk".

A detective told the court that police opposed bail because she had access to £18,000 and could flee the country.

He also expressed concerns that the accused may try to interfere with the complainant - described as a vulnerable adult - or her relatives.

"The victim has family in Nigeria, she is from an extremely poor and impoverished background," he told the court.

"The defendant's family-in-law would be from a different end of the social scale and, we believe, there would be pressure exerted over the victim's family in Nigeria."

The detective added: "The victim states that she was essentially transferred from one family to another... and would be in fear of being taken back to Nigeria and back to poverty."

Mrs Izekor's defence lawyer confirmed that she denied the allegations against her.

He told the court his client had limited knowledge of any relationship between her in-laws and the complainant.

Mrs Izekor was remanded in custody until 31 May.

On Wednesday her husband, Osarobo Izekor, 33, of the same Belfast address, appeared in court on the same charges under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act.

Mr Izekor, who is originally from Nigeria, was also remanded in custody.

The couple are the first to be prosecuted in Northern Ireland for alleged involvement in domestic servitude.

The alleged offence occurred between 31 December 2016 and 1 October 2017.

Detectives from the PSNI's Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit made the arrests as part of an ongoing investigation.

Documentation and mobile phones were seized during searches at a property in the city earlier this week.

According to police, the alleged victim escaped the property where she was living about 16 months ago, alerting a member of the public who contacted the authorities.