Four Due In Court Over Slavery Ring

Four Irish travelers have been arrested in connection with slavery offences.

Tommy Connors (30), Patrick Connors (19), James (Big Jim) Connors (34) and James (Jimmy) Connors (23) are accused of conspiracy to holding a person in servitude and requiring them to perform forced labour.

A fifth person who was arrested alongside the men on Sunday morning – a heavily pregnant woman – was released on bail and will be questioned further after the birth of her child

The charges follow a police raid on a Bedfordshire caravan site after the police were made aware of an alleged slavery ring within the community.

200 officers stormed the caravan site in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire on Sunday.

It is reported that around 24 men were kept there in squalor, and against their will.

The police believe that some of the captive have been kept there for over 15 years. The men, some English and others Eastern European were taken to hospital and later interviewed.

The raid was launched as part of a long-running investigation by Bedfordshire Police, which suggested the men were being held against their will in poor conditions at the site, and forced to work for no pay.

Those who were held, as prisoners on the site are believed to have been 'recruited' through soup kitchens and benefits offices and included people with problems such as alcoholism.

They were told if they went they would be paid £80 a day in addition to board and lodgings.

According to police reality was very different. When the men arrived on site their hair was cut off them, they were kept in some cases in horseboxes, dog kennels and old caravans, made to work for no money and given very, very small amounts of food.

Adrian Roberts, head of the CPS Thames and Chiltern Complex Casework Unit, said: "Police investigations into other offences relating to other potential victims at Greenacres are ongoing. The four men will appear at Luton Magistrates Court."

(LB/CD)