4 Travellers charged with slavery offences

SOME of the Travellers staying at the British caravan site at the centre of a slavery investigation are normally resident in Ireland and have claimed no knowledge of what was going on under their noses.

Four men, all believed to have Irish backgrounds and to work in the same gang in Britain, were charged by police last night following Sunday’s raid on the Greenacres Travellers Site in Bedfordshire, during which 24 men allegedly held as slaves were freed.

The four men — Tommy Connors, aged 30, Patrick Connors, aged 19, James (Big Jim) Connors, aged 34, and James (Jimmy) Connors, aged 23, all of Greenacres caravan site, in Great Billington, Leighton Buzzard — have been charged with slavery offences relating to four people found at the site.

The men will appear at Luton Magistrates’ Court today.

More details of the men who were rescued from the site emerged yesterday.

Police said those who were accepting assistance and were willing to be interviewed included eight British men, three Polish men, a Latvian and a Lithuanian and two other men whose nationalities were unconfirmed.

Nine other men yesterday left a specially provided reception centre after receiving medical care and were declining any further involvement in the police investigation.

The youngest person found on site was a 17-year-old Briton who has left the care of police and rejoined his family, police said. Of those who chose to stay with the support services, the youngest man was 30 and British and the oldest was 57 and also British.

The discovery of British men among the group was one of the more shocking elements of the police operation. Victims of forced labour are more usually migrant workers who find themselves trapped by employers who steal their travel documents, threaten them with deportation or threaten to harm their families back home.

The British men, however, were found in vulnerable positions, often lured from soup kitchens or homeless facilities with the promise of paid work and accommodation. It is believed those who attempted to leave were threatened with physical violence.

Detective Chief Inspector Sean O’Neil, from the Beds and Herts Major Crime Unit, who lead the investigation, known as Operation Netwing, said it could take days to unravel their individual tales.

“Those people who we continue to help are appreciative of the support that is on offer, but it will take some time to work through with them what has happened.

“The new legislation [the Slavery and Servitude Act 2010] 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 by the Netwing operation.”