Four travellers guilty of forcing destitute men into slavery

Four members of a traveller family have been found guilty of forcing destitute men into servitude.

Tommy Senior, James John, Patrick and Josie Connors were convicted of controlling, exploiting, verbally abusing and beating the men for financial gain at a caravan site near Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire.

A jury at Luton Crown Court heard that the complainants, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were forced to work in the Connors’ block paving business.

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The 13-week trial heard the men were given next to no food, forced to wash in cold water and paid little or no money for working up to 19 hours a day, six days a week. A total of seven members of the family were on trial but the jury failed to reach verdicts on counts regarding Tommy Junior, 27, Johnny, 28, and James Connors, 24, after deliberating more than a day. It cleared them of several other counts. The victims were housed in filthy caravans and sheds, and spent Sundays door-to-door selling. Some were alcoholics, addicts or had been in trouble with the law, and were picked up off streets, at soup kitchens or homeless centres.

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