Brothers charged with slavery

THREE brothers and their brother-in-law were remanded in custody yesterday after appearing in court charged with enslaving four men at a Travellers’ site in Britain.

James (Jimmy) Connors, aged 23, Tommy Connors, aged 27, and Patrick Connors, aged 19, appeared at Luton Magistrates’ Court with brother-in-law James (Big Jim) Connors, aged 33. The charges relate to four alleged victims removed from the Greenacres site in Bedfordshire after a police raid on Sunday.

They were brought under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, which came into force last year.

James (Big Jim) Connors faces six charges of conspiracy in relation to three victims, all of which were allegedly committed between April 2010 and August.

The other three men each face four charges of conspiracy, two for each in relation to two victims, which are said to have happened between June 2010 and April.

The court heard many of the alleged victims had to undertake work such as paving, resurfacing and retiling for little or no pay. They are in varying conditions, mentally and physically.

District Judge Leigh Smith refused the defendants bail and remanded them in custody to appear at Luton Crown Court on December 5.

A pregnant woman who was arrested alongside the men on Sunday was released on bail and will be questioned further after the birth of her child, police said.

Howls of sorrow erupted from the wives of the defendants as the judge remanded the men in custody. One cried: “What am I going to do with my children?”

The charges followed an investigation by the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit and relate to alleged offences against the men at the Greenacres site.

They were arrested during an early-morning raid on the site by more than 200 police officers.

The operation followed a long investigation by the force which suggested 24 men were being held against their will in squalid conditions at the site and forced to work for no pay.

The men were taken from the site to a medical centre.

Police said they were mostly from British and Eastern European backgrounds.

A police spokesman said nine people had left the medical centre and had “chosen not to support the police investigation”.