A British couple has been jailed for six years for keeping a Nigerian immigrant as a slave for more than two decades, a London court clerk said.
Emmanuel Edet, 61, and Antan Edet, 58, were sentenced at Harrow Crown Court in London, late on Monday, after being found guilty of child cruelty, slavery and assisting in illegal immigration.
The Prosecution Service said that the couple brought the man to Britain in 1989 when he was 14 years old on the pretext of educating and paying him, but instead, they forced him to work for long hours without any pay and threatened him with deportation if he tried to escape.
The victim, now 40, was forced to cook, clean, garden and take care of the couple’s children without any pay, for up to 17 hours a day.
They added that he had limited contact with his family and the outside world. The couple had taken his passport, so he had no identity documents.
Prosecutor Damaris Lakin said the Edets told their captive that he would be arrested as an illegal immigrant and deported if he left the house or contacted police.
He believed this and felt trapped and completely dependent on the Edets. 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.Damaris Lakin
Prosecutors said the Edets had changed the victim’s name and added him to their family passport as their son when they brought him into Britain.
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