Slaves held for 15 years in kennels and horse boxes
Four men and a woman were being questioned by detectives today after 24 slaves were discovered living in dog kennels, sheds and horse boxes in one of the worst cases of modern day slavery ever discovered.

3:55AM BST 12 Sep 2011

More than 200 officers swooped on the Greenacres travellers' site in Leighton Buzzard during the early hours of yesterday morning and found the large group of men living in squalid conditions.

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.

Police believe some may have been held for as long as 15 years.

The five suspects, all residents of the site, were detained on suspicion of slavery offences and are being held in custody at police stations across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, the force said.

They were arrested using new legislation under the Slavery and Servitude Act 2010, said a police spokesman. Officers arrived at the site at 5.30am yesterday morning.
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The 24 men, all believed to be victims of slavery, were taken from the site to a medical centre.

Police said they were mostly from English and eastern European backgrounds.

Dozens of police vans remained at the site, which consists of a series of gated properties set off a winding road, until late yesterday afternoon.

A few young children played in the road running through the campsite but many residents were unwilling to speak about what had taken place.

Detective Chief Inspector Sean O'Neil, from the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said: ''The men we found at the site were in a poor state of physical health and the conditions they were living in were shockingly filthy and cramped.

''We believe that some of them had been living and working there in a state of virtual slavery, some for just a few weeks and others for up to 15 years.

''Because of the number of victims and suspects and the size of the site, we needed the assistance of many officers from specialist units today. We are aware the operation has caused a lot of disruption to the other residents of the site and we thank them for their co-operation and understanding.''

During the operation, the major crime unit joined forces with other specialist units including the dog section, helicopter and firearms support unit, and were assisted by officers from the UK Human Trafficking Centre.

Travellers ‘kept 100 enslaved’ across Britain

Fay Schlesinger, Lucy Bannerman, John Simpson
September 13 2011 12:01AM

The full scale of a suspected slavery ring targeting homeless and vulnerable men emerged yesterday as The Times learnt that more than 100 people are believed to have been held prisoner across the country.

Police suspect that a network of Irish travellers is behind an organised crime operation to kidnap or recruit homeless Britons and Eastern Europeans over the past two decades and force them into unpaid work, while holding them in squalid conditions on starvation rations.

After the rescue of 24 men from putrid and cramped caravans, sheds and horse boxes at the Greenacres travellers’ encampment in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, it has emerged that raids carried out at four other travellers’ sites across five counties are believed to be linked through a family with the surname Connors.

Four men were charged last night under Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 with the offence of holding someone in slavery or servitude or requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour. They were Tommy Connors, 30, Patrick Connors, 19, James “Big Jim” Connors, 34, and James “Jimmy” Connors, 23. A heavily pregnant woman was bailed.

Since March this year, at least 60 “slaves”, mostly recruited in homeless shelters, Jobcentres and on the streets, have been saved from what Bedfordshire Police described as a “family-run business and organised crime group” that put people to work across Britain and in Scandinavia.

They were allegedly made to carry out manual labour such as laying paving stones, and threatened with violence if they tried to escape.

A source close to the Serious Organised Crime Agency, whose branch the UK Human Trafficking Centre has provided intelligence and surveillance support to at least five police forces involved, said that other investigations into the network were continuing and further arrests expected. The number of victims could exceed 100.

Detective Chief Inspector Sean O’Neil, of Bedfordshire Police, said: “New legislation has allowed the investigation more scope and takes into account emotional rather than physical harm. I am confident that while the investigation is in its early stages this is a family-run business and is an organised crime group that has been broken up.”

Paul Donohoe, of Anti-Slavery International, said: “When children abscond from care homes and are trafficked, we understand that local authorities have failed. When someone is homeless or has a drinking problem, they are falling through the net.”

The original investigation is thought to have been prompted by the discovery in March 2008 of the body of a man named as Christopher Nicholls, close to the Beggar’s Roost caravan site in Gloucestershire. He had been missing since 2005.

In March 2010, police began covert surveillance of a number of sites including Beggar’s Roost, where they observed 22 alleged slaves.

It is believed that the men were sent to work in Worcestershire and the West Midlands, digging up driveways using only hand tools and then tarmacking and block-paving them for £20 a day, or in some cases no pay, and minimal amounts of food. The caravans where they lived allegedly had no running water, minimal heating and no proper washing facilities. Police believe that they were kept in servitude by violence, threats of violence, withholding documents, debt bondage, and being placed in isolated locations. Some were moved between two other sites, in Leicestershire and Derbyshire.

Having gathered evidence, 200 officers made a co-ordinated early-morning swoop on three sites on March 22 this year. At Beggar’s Roost, they found three alleged victims and arrested two people: William Connors, 50, and his wife Breda Connors, 46. A further nine “slaves” were found in Derbyshire, and Mr and Mrs Connors’s 28-year-old son, John Connors, was arrested. The couple’s son-in-law, Miles Connors, 22, was arrested at another site, in Leicestershire, where eight alleged victims were found. All four have been charged with conspiring to hold people in slavery or servitude and are awaiting trial at Bristol Crown Court next month.

A fifth man, a 19-year-old from Staverton who is also believed to have the surname Connors, was arrested last month by Danish police and is awaiting extradition to the UK. In June, 120 officers from Hampshire Constabulary raided an illegal travellers’ encampment where 14 alleged victims were rescued. Two men, John Connors, 26, and Jerry Connors, 19, were charged with slavery offences.

Graham Clark, who is homeless, told Channel 4 News yesterday how he was kidnapped and held for ten months. “You were separated from them. You weren’t allowed to enter their trailer . . . I wasn’t allowed to use their toilet services, strictly for them, I had to go into a bush and wipe myself with leaves. Degrading.

“I was treated like a slave but at least I had a roof over my head. I was scared. I tried escaping once but they found me, not too far away.”

A traveller told The Times that he was aware of people being approached in soup kitchens and offered work. Once the men agreed, they could be traded between gangmasters, he said.