A FILIPINA woman kept as a slave by a Weipa couple and repeatedly raped by the husband will finally get her wish to "make them pay" for what they did to her.

After a five-day trial, a Cairns Supreme Court jury late yesterday found Melita Kovacs, 50, guilty of using and possessing the now 35-year-old woman as a slave, while her husband Zoltan, 60, separately pleaded guilty to the same charges.

The couple, who will be sentenced today, have continually denied the charges in the past, forcing their victim to give evidence at five separate rape and slavery trials in the past five years.

Each time the convictions were overturned on appeal.

The charges relate to a period between August 2002 and February 2003 when the Kovacs arranged a marriage for their victim in the Philippines so she could get an Australian visa.

The Kovacs brought her to Weipa where they made her work up to 18 hour days in their takeaway shop and as a domestic at their home for no salary, restricted her communication and movements, stopped her attempt to escape and took her passport to prevent further attempts.

Mr Kovacs was also charged with repeatedly raping the woman, including once in a Cairns motel room after she arrived in the Far North.

Mr Kovacs, a Hungarian immigrant is already serving a seven-year sentence after being convicted in 2007 for two rapes and a sexual assault relating to a different woman in 1997.

A victim impact statement from the Filipina woman read by Crown prosecutor Jim Henry yesterday told of how the strain of her ongoing ordeal had been too much for her long-term partner and father of her two young sons, who she met after fleeing the Kovacs in August 2003 and broke up with 18 months ago.

She had also suffered from not being able to see an older son back in the Philippines as she waited to give evidence in Australia, and had been unable to say goodbye to her mother before she died in
late 2006.

"I want them to pay for what they’ve done, not money or anything but I don’t want them to do it to anyone again," her statement read.

Mr Kovacs’ barrister Josh Trevino said his client had lost his businesses and his home as he defended the charges, and could no longer provide for his five children


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