Doctor Emmanuel Edet and his wife Antan were yesterday,
Monday, December 7, sentenced to 12 years in prison, Metropolitan
Police UK said. Edet, 61, a phlebotomist and Antan, 58, senior nursing sister both of Haymill
Close, Perivale, were sentenced as follows:
-holding a person in slavery or servitude: both sentenced to six years
-child cruelty: both sentenced to three years
-assisting unlawful immigration: both sentenced to one year. All sentences to run concurrently.
Sentencing the couple at Harrow Crown Court today Judge Graham said
their treatment of Mr Inuk, now 40, left him "conditioned" to his
plight.
"He was conditioned to the extent that that he did
not ask for what he wanted because he expected his request to be
refused. He was paid the occasional pocket money of perhaps £10. He
claims that that was only at Easter and Christmas and occasionally
visitors would give him larger sums"
The couple took the victim from his home country, Nigeria, to the UK without his
family's permission in 1989, when he was 13 years old. He agreed
to be their "house boy" on the basis that he would be paid and receive
schooling, but they made him carry out arduous, unpaid labour for 24
years.
He was forced to work for around 17 hours every day at
their homes in Chatham, Scarborough, Walsall, Northolt and Perivale. The
Edets kept notes on the standard of his work, which included rigorous
cleaning, caring for their two children and cooking for the family.
They
controlled every aspect of his life, from what he could wear to when he
could leave the house, and demanded that he only spoke to them in
Nigerian but to the other children solely in English.
The Edets
claimed they had adopted him as their son but in reality they forbade
him from even eating in the same room as family members. He was not
allowed to enter most of the rooms in the house unless it was to clean
them, and they made him sleep on a dirty piece of foam on the hallway
floor.
They verbally abused him, calling him a "parasite", and
convinced him that if he went to the police, he would be arrested for
being an illegal immigrant.
The Edets controlled the victim so
effectively that even when they left him alone in the house for weeks at
a time, he did not run away.
In December 2013, the Edets returned
to Nigeria for Christmas, leaving the victim alone at their home in
Perivale for several weeks. Before leaving, they set up a remotely
controlled CCTV camera in the hallway so they could monitor him.
The
victim, having recently seen media reports about modern slavery,
realised the life he was being made to lead was wrong and emailed the
charity 'Hope for Justice' from a computer at the house.
Hope for
Justice referred the matter to the MPS Trafficking and Kidnap Unit (TKU)
on 19 December, and the next day detectives helped him leave and get
specialist support. The unit carried out a lengthy investigation,
including a number of sensitive interviews with the victim. They
subsequently arrested and charged the Edets on 6 March 2014.
Detective Chief Inspector Phil Brewer of the Trafficking and Kidnap Unit said:
"The Edets took self-appointed ownership of the victim. They controlled what he wore, what he did and how he spoke for the majority of his life. When the victim left Nigeria, he was a young boy with aspirations but the Edets abused him until he became timid, nervous and obedient. They conditioned him to the degree that when we visited him at the Perivale address and tried to lead him into the living room to speak, he became visibly shaken at the thought of breaking the Edets' rules about going into that room. It was only when he went into the kitchen that he was able to relax and speak openly to police.
"The Edets took self-appointed ownership of the victim. They controlled what he wore, what he did and how he spoke for the majority of his life. When the victim left Nigeria, he was a young boy with aspirations but the Edets abused him until he became timid, nervous and obedient. They conditioned him to the degree that when we visited him at the Perivale address and tried to lead him into the living room to speak, he became visibly shaken at the thought of breaking the Edets' rules about going into that room. It was only when he went into the kitchen that he was able to relax and speak openly to police.
"Today the victim is
living a new life in the UK. He has a job, a home with his own bed and
freedom to move, and he is studying. While he will never fully overcome
what happened during those 24 years, he is determined to make the most
of the rest of his life and today's conviction will help him feel he can
do that. In his own words, he has hope and a future now."
"I urge
anyone else being treated the way that this victim was to please tell
the police or call the national trafficking helpline. There are
specially trained people waiting to help you."
Ben Cooley, CEO at
Hope for Justice, said:
"The victim's story is saddening but,
unfortunately, not surprising to me. Hope for Justice identifies cases
of human trafficking on a weekly basis; since January our teams have
already helped 70 victims here in the UK. He was very courageous to come
forward when he did. To all those others still out there I say: please
have the confidence to come forward, we will do all that we can to help
you."
Dr Edet's assets totalled around £30,00 including a house in Nigeria,
while Mrs Edet, who worked as a £27,000-a-year NHS ward sister until she
was arrested, had no assets.
Source: Metropolitan PoliceUK
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