LONDON — Five members of an Irish traveller family were on Friday found guilty by an English court of forcing destitute men into servitude.
The trial heard that their victims were often homeless drifters or addicts, who were forced to live in squalid caravans on traveller sites where they were controlled by violence. Some worked for the family for decades.
William Connors, 52, his wife Mary, 48, their sons John, 29, and James, 20, and their son-in-law Miles Connors, 24, were all convicted of conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour between April 2010 and March 2011.
A jury at Bristol Crown Court in southwest England found them guilty following a three-month trial. There was uproar from relatives in the public gallery as they were convicted.
They are due to be sentenced next week.
The court heard how the Connors' luxurious lifestyle was in stark contrast to that of the men who worked under them.
Many were beaten with broom handles, belts, rakes and shovels, and punched and kicked by the Connors. One had a hosepipe shoved down his throat.
They were often made to strip for a "hosing down session" with freezing water.
The men were paid as little as £5 ($8, six euros) for a day's hard labour on jobs that would earn the family several thousand pounds.
They were given so little food they scavenged from bins at supermarkets.
The men also salvaged clothing from bins and used a bucket or woodland as a toilet, jurors heard.
In contrast, the Connors lived in large, well-appointed caravans with flat-screen televisions. They enjoyed luxury holidays in Dubai and Mexico and cruised the Caribbean on the Cunard flagship liner Queen Mary 2.
They drove around in Mercedes and Rolls-Royce cars and built up a property portfolio.
Ann Reddrop, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said afterwards that the Connors family had a "punitive relationship with those whom they forced to work for them".
They were involved in the "serious mistreatment of people who because of their personal circumstances had little option but to continue to remain with the offenders.
"The defendants used violence to prevent the victims leaving them or from alerting the authorities to their treatment."
Police said that many of the men they rescued were "institutionalised" and did not recognise themselves as victims.
Their caravans were so squalid that even hardened officers were not prepared to set foot inside them or touch any of the surfaces.

Lesson's Learnt:
1) The police do some really good stuff.
2) Not all travellers are cool.
3) Beware of stereotypes on Indymedia about who is bad and who is good.