3 Women held captive for 30 yrs in South London

Three women have been "rescued" from a south London house as police investigate claims they were held as slaves for at least 30 years.

Police arrested a 67-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman in Lambeth.

Last month officers were contacted by Freedom Charity after it received a call from a woman saying she had been held against her will for decades.

A Malaysian woman, 69, an Irish woman, 57, and a British woman, 30, were rescued from the house on 25 October.

The women, who are said to be "highly traumatised", are now in safe accommodation.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

We have never seen anything of this magnitude before”

Det Insp Kevin Hyland
Met Police
Police said they were not related to each other and the 30-year-old had spent her whole life in captivity. Officers are trying to establish whether she was born in the house.

Det Insp Kevin Hyland, from the Metropolitan Police's Human Trafficking Unit, said: "We have seen some cases when people have been held for 10 years, but we have never seen anything of this magnitude before."

He added that the women had controlled lives and spent most of it indoors, but they had some freedom.

Police said the facts behind the situation were being slowly established as specialist workers were assisting the women. Officers said there was no evidence of sexual abuse.

Source - BBC News

Wow, this really shocked me.
There was an assistant to the home secretary on LBC London speaking about this as the story broke, he said that modern slavery in the UK was 20 times worse than when slavery was originally abolished.
The difference between then and now is that its kept secret now.

reply to post by OneManArmy


Starting to hear more and more stories like this. I guess it really does happen more than you think. Glad they finally got out.

I'm surprised this isn't getting more attention here, after what happened here in the US.
30 YEARS!!!!
I'm just shocked that one of them finally came forward after all this time to save herself. I can't even imagine the help these women are going to need emotionally.

reply to post by OneManArmy



I think the 'story' is allegorical. We are the slaves, old and young,
to a system that has imprisoned us all.
I don't think it is meant to be taken literally, as is kind of implied
by the home affairs correspondant's comment on the page;

The first reaction is shock: if true, how could three women have been held as slaves for 30 years in an ordinary house, in a busy neighbourhood, in a great capital city?

The questions will keep on coming. Did the neighbours suspect anything? Why didn't the women try to escape before? Did police, health workers or social services ever have cause to be concerned?

It's hard to believe that there was no such outside contact - especially given the police's belief that the 30 year old spent her childhood there.

The issue of domestic servitude has risen up the political agenda in recent months - this case is certain to ensure that it stays there.

The main article reads rather strangely, no?
It is also reminiscent of the recent story of the 3 girls who were
kidnapped and held for years in the U.S.. Another dodgy one!

catfishjoe
reply to post by OneManArmy

 

Starting to hear more and more stories like this. I guess it really does happen more than you think. Glad they finally got out.

That is exactly what the home office spokesman said on the radio, the cases are getting worse.

100s Forced into Slavery Every Day In London - Some as young as 10 found in brothels.

OneFreeMan
reply to post by OneManArmy

 

I think the 'story' is allegorical. We are the slaves, old and young,
to a system that has imprisoned us all.
I don't think it is meant to be taken literally, as is kind of implied
by the home affairs correspondant's comment on the page;

The first reaction is shock: if true, how could three women have been held as slaves for 30 years in an ordinary house, in a busy neighbourhood, in a great capital city?

The questions will keep on coming. Did the neighbours suspect anything? Why didn't the women try to escape before? Did police, health workers or social services ever have cause to be concerned?

It's hard to believe that there was no such outside contact - especially given the police's belief that the 30 year old spent her childhood there.

The issue of domestic servitude has risen up the political agenda in recent months - this case is certain to ensure that it stays there.

The main article reads rather strangely, no?
It is also reminiscent of the recent story of the 3 girls who were
kidnapped and held for years in the U.S.. Another dodgy one!

The story has only just broken, its very early.
Far too early to be calling "dodgy".
Whats dodgy is the lack of reporting on the court case of the "alledged killers" of Lee Rigby.

OneFreeMan
reply to post by OneManArmy

 

The main article reads rather strangely, no?
It is also reminiscent of the recent story of the 3 girls who were
kidnapped and held for years in the U.S.. Another dodgy one!



what do you mean by dodgy? The story in Cleveland? It is true. Those three young women were held captive for 10 years in a tough neighborhood in the city by a deranged and sick man. We lived with the news stories of these missing women for years here - and so happy they were able to finally escape.

originally posted by: OneManArmy

catfishjoe
reply to post by OneManArmy

 

Starting to hear more and more stories like this. I guess it really does happen more than you think. Glad they finally got out.

That is exactly what the home office spokesman said on the radio, the cases are getting worse.

100s Forced into Slavery Every Day In London - Some as young as 10 found in brothels.

Is this about sex slaves?

originally posted by: Galadriel

OneFreeMan
reply to post by OneManArmy

 

The main article reads rather strangely, no?
It is also reminiscent of the recent story of the 3 girls who were
kidnapped and held for years in the U.S.. Another dodgy one!

what do you mean by dodgy? The story in Cleveland? It is true. Those three young women were held captive for 10 years in a tough neighborhood in the city by a deranged and sick man. We lived with the news stories of these missing women for years here - and so happy they were able to finally escape.




True. And the man who held them captive committed suicide before his trial.

a reply to: Gianfar

Not exclusively, although sex slavery makes up a large portion.
There are also many domestic slaves, used as housekeepers and treated terribly. Then there are the sweatshops producing clothing, treating their workers like slaves. There are slaves being used to pick fruit.
There have been some cases of people being kidnapped and held captive and used as slaves by farmers.
And this is all in the UK, lest we not forget the kids making our clothes in Asia and the Far East.

The guy I mentioned who was heading up a task force on modern slavery, said words to the effect of "Slavery today is more widespread than it was 200 years ago, the only difference is that now its underground and unseen"
That statement blew me away when I heard it a few months ago.

There is a cancer at the core of capitalism, and that is slavery, in this day and age.
While there are debates over reparations for the african slave trade, we still have slavery alive and well right now.
But it seems as long as we get the cheap goods, nobody cares about the real cost.

originally posted by: OneManArmy
a reply to: Gianfar

Not exclusively, although sex slavery makes up a large portion.
There are also many domestic slaves, used as housekeepers and treated terribly. Then there are the sweatshops producing clothing, treating their workers like slaves. There are slaves being used to pick fruit.
There have been some cases of people being kidnapped and held captive and used as slaves by farmers.
And this is all in the UK, lest we not forget the kids making our clothes in Asia and the Far East.

The guy I mentioned who was heading up a task force on modern slavery, said words to the effect of "Slavery today is more widespread than it was 200 years ago, the only difference is that now its underground and unseen"
That statement blew me away when I heard it a few months ago.

There is a cancer at the core of capitalism, and that is slavery, in this day and age.
While there are debates over reparations for the african slave trade, we still have slavery alive and well right now.
But it seems as long as we get the cheap goods, nobody cares about the real cost.

Well, by greed history confers its unrelenting hegemonic ascension upon the disadvantaged. As in days of old, slave masters depend upon the patronage of consumers lacking in social conscience. Interestingly, higher British society lost favor in slavery when given tours of slave ships illustrating the despicable conditions under which Africans were transported.

Though open slavery is socially unacceptable now, as you mentioned, it takes place quietly in the third world or closer to home clandestinely.

The human race is aware, but issues of humanity that we are not directly confronted with are easily lost in the comforts of ritual materialism. I've been told by the capitalists that I shouldn't feel guilty. After all, if it weren't for the labors of the down trodden, the rest of us wouldn't retain the wealth we have, and those third worlders wouldn't even have a job or money to purchase a bowl of rice.

In America, we are so distracted in the quest to fulfill insatiable appetites for things, we leave our children in car at the casino, the mall or at work to perish.