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A British couple have been found guilty of enslaving a Nigerian immigrant for 24 years in the UK.
Emanuel Edet, 61, and Antan Edet, 58, were convicted at Harrow Crown Court in northwest London on charges of child cruelty, slavery and assisting in illegal immigration.
They held their victim captive from the time he was brought to Britain when he was 14 years old, Crown Prosecution Service said.
They had told the teenager when they brought him from Nigeria in 1989 that they would pay him and provide him with an education.
Instead, the victim, now 40, was forced to cook, clean, garden and care for the couple’s children without any pay for up to 17 hours a day, they said. He was forced to eat alone and typically slept on hallway floors, they said.
He got no education and had only very limited contact with his family and the outside world. The couple took his passport, and he had no identity documents, prosecutors said.
Prosecutor Damaris Lakin said the Edets told their captive he would be arrested as an illegal immigrant and deported if he left the house and contacted police.
“He believed this and felt trapped and completely dependent on the Edets,” Lakin said in a statement. “Emanuel and Antan Edet have cruelly robbed this victim of 24 years of his life. They have treated him with complete contempt.”
“This was a shocking case of modern day slavery,” he said.
Reuters
Emanuel Edet, 61, and Antan Edet, 58, were convicted at Harrow Crown Court in northwest London on charges of child cruelty, slavery and assisting in illegal immigration.
They held their victim captive from the time he was brought to Britain when he was 14 years old, Crown Prosecution Service said.
They had told the teenager when they brought him from Nigeria in 1989 that they would pay him and provide him with an education.
Instead, the victim, now 40, was forced to cook, clean, garden and care for the couple’s children without any pay for up to 17 hours a day, they said. He was forced to eat alone and typically slept on hallway floors, they said.
He got no education and had only very limited contact with his family and the outside world. The couple took his passport, and he had no identity documents, prosecutors said.
Prosecutor Damaris Lakin said the Edets told their captive he would be arrested as an illegal immigrant and deported if he left the house and contacted police.
“He believed this and felt trapped and completely dependent on the Edets,” Lakin said in a statement. “Emanuel and Antan Edet have cruelly robbed this victim of 24 years of his life. They have treated him with complete contempt.”
“This was a shocking case of modern day slavery,” he said.
Reuters