NHS doctor and wife "owned" man as slave for 24 years

A Nigerian doctor and his wife from north-west London
effectively ‘owned’ and kept a young man as a
slave for 24 years, a jury has been told.
Ofonime Sunday Inuk was about 14-years-old in
1989 when he left his native Nigeria with
Emmanuel and Antan Edet, travelling first to
Israel before arriving in the UK.
He stayed at various addresses with their family
where he cleaned and looked after the couple’s
home and children, Harrow Crown Court was told.
He had been introduced to the married couple,
who worked in the NHS, through a family friend in
Nigeria.
Mr Edet was a trained obstetrician and
gyneologist and Mrs Edet was a senior sister at a
hospital.
The deal was that the youngster should be paid for
his work and receive an education, but this never
happened, the court heard.
Instead he went unpaid, was not given a decent
education and was left to sleep on the floor or in
an outhouse, prosecutor Roger Smart said.
He would eat by himself and was stripped of his
passport, the lawyer continued, adding the
defendants had ‘to all intents and purposes
owned him, controlling nearly every aspect of his
life down to his very name’.
Emmanuel Edet, 60, and his wife Antan, 58, of
Perivale, have pleaded not guilty to holding a
person in slavery and servitude and assisting
unlawful immigration.
They deny a further count of cruelty to a person
under the age of 16.
The court was told the defendants had also
changed Mr Inuk’s name so that he had the same
surname as their own.
Mr Smart claimed this was ‘neither his [Mr Inuk’s]
choice nor his desire but provided a means by
which the defendant could move him not only
domestically but internationally at their
convenience and whim’.
Mr Smart told the jury that Mr Inuk had become
so dependent on the Edets that he felt he had no
choice but to stay with them.
He was told that if he left the house and reported
matters to the police he would be arrested as an
illegal immigrant and sent back to Nigeria.
Mr Smart told the court: ‘The victim has described
as having spent 24 years of his life and having
nothing to show for it – his mother has died, he
has no means of returning to Nigeria. He was
entirely dependent on them and they deprived
him of his adolescence, his education and his
family life. They have treated him beneath
contempt.
‘It was clear the Edets did not like him obtaining
even the modicum of freedom and, ultimately and
without any care to him, they removed him from
the course.
‘When he did not meet their exacting standards,
they hit him and punched him – he recalls this
particularly clearly in relation to his trying to
apply for college.’
Mr Inuk had tried to ask for his passport back in
around 1995 but, Mr Smart told the court: ‘Every
effort made by Ofonime to enjoy basic rights were
thwarted by the Edets.
‘Having asked for his passport he was provided
with a copy but the vital part with the visa on it,
the part showing his status, was denied him.’
Mr Inuk’s family contacted the Edets in 2004
after they received a letter in which he described
how he was being treated.
A row later broke out between the Edets and Mr
Inuk’s cousin but the Edets claimed they had sent
money and passports to Nigeria. They also claimed
they had transferred money into a bank account
but Mr Inuk had no knowledge of this account, the
court was told.
A friend gave him a mobile phone which he hid
from the Edets.
Mr Inuk, who was living with the Edets in Perivale,
went to police at Greenford, west London, but
they took no action. The matter was recorded as a
missing passport and ‘it was incorrectly believed by
the officer to whom it was reported that he could
not help’, Mr Smart said.
‘Ofonime took no further action, believing that in
the absence of his passport and this inability to
prove who he was and why he was here, that he was
an illegal immigrant and would not believed.’
This fear was compounded when Mr Inuk and his
friend went to Ealing social services only to be
told there was nothing they could do for him
because he was an adult, Mr Smart added.
The Edets went to Nigeria for Christmas 2013 and
Mr Inuk used the chance to send an email to a
humanitarian campaign group about his plight. The
police were then alerted.
The officers who spoke to Mr Inuk found he was a
‘nervous and timid’ man who hung his head low
and appeared ‘almost servile’, Mr Smart said.
The Edets were arrested in March last year.

Culled from metro.co.UK