Women Freed After Years As Slaves

[icyfroth]

THREE "highly traumatised" women have been rescued from a London house after being held as slaves for as long as 30 years, police say.

A man and a woman, both aged 67, will be questioned today regarding the case, which involves a 30-year-old woman who is believed to have been born in captivity.

Detectives yesterday described the horror as they raided the Lambeth home and found the 30-year-old British woman, a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 69-year-old Malaysian woman.

Officers said they had "never seen anything of this magnitude before" and the three women were "deeply traumatised" after spending years allegedly in servitude.

It has been confirmed the 30-year-old has told officers she had been held in captivity for 30 years. Insp Hyland said she had had "no contact with the outside world” and may well have been born in captivity. He said officers had heard about cases where someone was held for 10 years but nothing like 30 years.

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God there's a lot of evil in the world. It'll be interesting to see the full story.

[bright.ton42]

Yes it's awful Icy.   I wonder how those women will cope with the outside world now though. 

[icyfroth]

Hi Bright. 🙂

It reminds me of that Fritzl case in Austria where the children had never seen the outside world.

The 3 women in this case were extremely traumatised according to case workers. To be in captivity for 30 years as the youngest one was!

It will take them a long time to assimilate.

[polocross58]

Stockholm syndrome type thing ?

Three women held in captivity by two elderly foreigners?

Maybe the three women were particularly vulnerable due to mental conditions?

Hard to fathom at this point

On the surface it hardly sounds probable that three women could all be physically restrained by two captors, considering initial reports claim the women were provided rooms of their own and were permitted 'limited freedom', so we'll have to await further information.  Be interesting to learn what circumstances led to their finally seeking freedom.  Maybe their captors were becoming enfeebled and more dependent, so the power-position switched

[icyfroth]

Yes it does make you wonder, Polo.

30 years ago, though, the now elderly captors might have been physically and mentally quite strong enough to terrorise the two older women into submission through cultural or religious beliefs, whatever. Over the years they probably became quite habituated to the situation and gave up all hope of release.

The 30 yo old woman born into the situation wouldnt've known any different.

It's quite an intrigueing case.

[polocross58]

One possibility may be that death or injury to the remaining captives was used as threat to keep potential rebellion at bay

Or, maybe the captives were assured their loved-ones would die if one or more captives attempted to flee

If the 30 year old was, as is suspected currently, born as a captive, who then was her mother?  Or did the captors steal a baby or child?

With the captors aged 67 years, no sentence could adequately reflect the monstrousness of their crime, so basically, they stole 90 years of three women's lives and effectively will get away with it, considering any prison sentence will be at least as comfortable as most aged-care homes

As humans, we struggle to reconcile these crimes with our inherent belief in fairness and justice

[twinkles**stars]

Out on bail pending a court hearing in Febuary? Bail????

[icyfroth]

Just to update with the latest on this case, I've been following it with interest...

Women held as 'slaves' in London were part of 'collective'

London (AFP) - A couple accused of keeping three women as slaves in a London house for 30 years are of Indian and Tanzanian origin and two of the victims were part of a political "collective", police said on Saturday.

The third victim, a 30-year-old woman, is believed to have spent her entire life in servitude in a case that has stunned Britain.

"We believe that two of the victims met the male suspect in London through a shared political ideology, and that they lived together at an address that you could effectively call a 'collective'," he told reporters.

"Somehow that collective came to an end and... the women ended up continuing to live with the suspects."

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[polksaladallie]

I heard a discussion about this situation and slavery in general, and the ?reporter said that there are 86 million people living in slave conditions throughout the world. 

[icyfroth]

I think slavery, in one form or another, will never be abolished.