Travellers 'kept men as serfs', UK court hears

Five members of the same traveller family kept their own “private workforce” to use as they pleased, a British court heard today.

The men – often homeless drifters or addicts – lived in caravans on traveller sites across England and forced to work as “serfs”.

Many were beaten or watched others being assaulted over “many years”, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Prosecutors allege William Connors, 52, his wife Mary, 48, their sons John, 29, and James, 20, and their son in law Miles Connors, 23, were the “bosses” who ran the enterprise.

The defendants all deny charges of conspiracy to hold another person in servitude and conspiracy to require a person to carry out forced or compulsory labour.

Christopher Quinlan QC, prosecuting, told jurors at the start of the trial: “The prosecution case against them is that they acted together to pursue an arrangement to which each of them was party.

“The arrangement was to hold in captivity and servitude men who were forced to work about their premises and their businesses.

“They located and induced men, vulnerable by their circumstances and lifestyle, often homeless drifters, addicts, men isolated from their families and disconnected from society to work for them.

“Usually the recruitment was at shelters for the homeless or the streets.

“The men, who I shall refer to as the workers, were often made promises of accommodation, food and payment.

“Once they had been induced the workers were taken to caravan sites which the defendants owned, or used or were associated with.

“Once with the defendants, they were trapped and the promises made on the streets were spurious, empty promises intended to entice the men to go with them for one thing – work – and there was plenty of it.”

Mr Quinlan told the court that some of the men spent "many years" working for the Connors family.

“They were treated as serfs, kept as servants, held in servitude and required to work as and when demanded by their masters, their bosses,” the prosecutor said.

“In short, we say, the defendants took from them their basic human rights and liberty. The defendants benefited financially and we say handsomely in their legal exploits and enterprise.

“The men were forced to work and exploited for financial gain and the defendants had a very cheap labour workforce for their businesses.”

Mr Quinlan said the enterprise came to an end when police raided traveller sites in Staverton in Gloucestershire, Enderby in Leicestershire and Mansfield, Nottinghamshire in England on March 22, 2011.

All the defendants, except James Connors, were arrested that morning, the court heard. James Connors was arrested the following September by police.

The defendants maintained to detectives that the workers’ accounts were exaggerated or plain lies, Mr Quinlan said.

They also said the men were not servants or captives but “free agents” able to come and go as they pleased.

“William Connors and Mary Connors appeared to suggest that they helped the workers and they acted, in their own words, as ’Good Samaritans’ taking these men from their misery on the streets, providing them with food, work and accommodation,” Mr Quinlan said.

“They stayed with them because they had a better life than the alternative - the life on the streets.”