SHOCKING photos from the inside of a squalid caravan have revealed where a slave was held captive, beaten and forced to eat scraps for 26 years. The man, known only as Victim A, who was in his fifties, was kept in squalor by the Rooney family on a travellers’ site in Lincolnshire , while they lived a life of luxury . The family violently exploited their victims who were often homeless people or men with learning disabilities, a 2017 trial at Nottingham Crown Court heard.
When 11 members of the family were convicted it was the biggest modern slavery case in British legal history . The Rooneys had amassed a £4m fortune from their driveway business , according to a Proceeds of Crime hearing in 2019 at which they were ordered to pay back £1m, most of it to their victims. But Victim A has waited so long for compensation that his captors, who beat him, fed him on scraps and forced him to lay driveways for little or no pay, have been released from prison .
Read More in UK News The court offered Victim A just £12,428 under the Proceeds of Crime Act, leading his family to sue the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), an agency of the Ministry of Justice . Seven years on, the man has successfully received £352,000 in government compensation funded by the taxpayer, which his sister said will pay for his round-the-clock care. Fifteen other men held as slaves alongside Victim A passed away before they could claim the same level of compensation.
One of the labourers ended .