Three women kept as slaves for more than 30 years were held by “invisible handcuffs” because of the fear instilled in them by their captors, police said yesterday.
Detectives said the victims had been “brainwashed” and had described a “complicated and disturbing picture of emotional control over many years” which might take months to understand fully.
Meanwhile the head of the charity which secured the women’s release said they had been kept in “horrific” conditions and had thanked her for “saving their lives”.
A man and a woman, both aged 67 and believed to be Asian, were arrested on Thursday in Lambeth, south London, over the slavery claims and immigration offences. They were later released on bail.
Giving an update on the investigation, Commander Steve Rodhouse, of Scotland Yard’s Specialist Crime and Operations section, said: “We are unpicking a story that spans at least 30 years of these women's lives, and all of this requires police activity to turn that into evidence.
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23 Nov 2013“This case is sadly what we probably all understand as forced labour and domestic servitude, slavery in simple terms.”
He said the case was “unique”, adding: “It is not as brutally obvious as women being physically restrained inside an address and not allowed to leave.
“What
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