Husband and wife jailed for ‘slavery’ near Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire

A HUSBAND and wife who treated destitute men “worse than slaves” by forcing them into servitude have been jailed for 11 years and four years ­respectively.

James John, 34, and Josie Connors, 31, who are both members of a traveller family, “brutally manipulated and exploited” the men for financial gain at a caravan site near Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. Sentencing them at Luton Crown Court, Judge Michael Kay QC said: “In 1834, slavery was abolished in the British Empire. It did not mean that overnight slavery, servitude and the incidence of forced labour came to an end.”

He continued: “So it is that nearly 200 years after slavery was officially abolished, defendants have stood trial over a period of three months and been convicted of holding their fellow human beings in servitude and exacting from them forced labour.”

The couple lured the destitute men to their caravan site with the promise of money for work in their paving business. They subjected them to abuse while forcing them to live in squalid conditions with hardly any food and no means of washing.

“The promise of pay was a monstrous and callous deceit,” the judge said.