Three brothers and their brother-in-law appeared in court today charged with enslaving four men found at an Irish Travellers’ site in England.
James Connors (23), Tommy Connors (26), and Patrick Connors (19), appeared at Luton Magistrates’ Court along with brother-in-law James (Big Jim) Connors (33).
They are accused of conspiracy to hold a person in servitude and requiring them to perform forced labour.
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 in Bedfordshire.
The defendants all live at the site, in Great Billington, Leighton Buzzard, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
The charges were brought under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, which came into force last year.
Prosecutor Ben Gumpert said James Connors (Big Jim) faces six charges of conspiracy in relation to three victims, all of which were allegedly committed between April last year and August this year.
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 last year and April this year.
The court heard that many of the alleged victims were required to undertake work such as ground work, block paving, resurfacing and retiling for little or no pay.
They are currently in varying conditions both mentally and physically, Mr Gumpert said.
The charges followed an investigation by the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit and relate to alleged offences against the men at the Greenacres travellers’ site in Bedfordshire.
The defendants all live at the site, in Great Billington, Leighton Buzzard.
A heavily pregnant woman who was arrested alongside the men on Sunday morning as released on bail and will be questioned further after the birth of her child, police said.
The four men who spoke in court only to confirm their names, ages and address and to tell the court they understood the charges. Wearing sweatshirts of varying blue colours, the men frequently looked at their family members and each other as the hearing went on.
Howls of sorrow erupted from the wives of the four defendants who were sitting in the public gallery as the judge remanded the men in custody.
One cried out: "What am I going to do with my children?"
The men were arrested during an early-morning raid on the caravan site by more than 200 police officers.
The raid followed a long-running 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 English and eastern European backgrounds.
Nine of the 24 men taken away on Sunday have refused to co-operate with the investigation, while one of them returned to live at the site last night, saying that the police action was “ridiculous”.
Yesterday, Travellers living at the park angrily denied that the men had been slaves, insisting they had paid them £30 a day to work laying tarmac and clearing rubble, and had given them accommodation.
However, the accommodation was appalling, with some of the men living four-to-a-room in crowded, dilapidated caravans, while others had been seen sleeping in horseboxes and kennels by police during weeks of covert surveillance.
The dawn raid took place on Sunday as it was the only day the men were not taken off-site to work. Police say they were forced, instead, to clean the heavily secured caravan park.
It is understood that most of the alleged slaves are suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction. One of them came to Greenacres after he was approached by Travellers while he sat on a bridge readying to kill himself. Police say the men were promised £80 a day for work.
Before 2010 police struggled to prosecute allegations of slavery because they were required to use anti-trafficking laws, assault or charges of false imprisonment – none of them would cover the allegations made against Greenacres.
Under Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, a person found guilty of holding someone in domestic servitude could face up to 14 years in jail, while a conviction for forced labour brings a seven-year penalty.
The head of Anti-Slavery International, Aidan McQuade said he believed that up to 3,000 people are enslaved in the United Kingdom at any one time: “I was shocked [by the Greenacres allegations], but I was not surprised,” he said.