The “highly traumatised” women are alleged to have been held against their will for 30 years – with one born in captivity.
Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland addresses the media outside New Scotland Yard
A woman who was born into captivity and allowed no contact with the outside world is one of three ‘slaves’ who have been rescued after being kept against their will in a south London house for 30 years, the police revealed on Thursday.
A man and a woman, both aged 67, have been arrested after officers from Scotland Yard were alerted to the plight of the three women last month.
Detectives from the human trafficking unit said was the worst case of modern slavery they had ever come across in Britain.
The youngest of the alleged victims, who is now 30, is thought to have spent her entire life in servitude and is thought to have been born in captivity.
The woman, who police said had no normal contact with the outside world, was rescued alongside a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 69-year-old from Malaysia. Their alleged captors are not British, the police confirmed, but provided no further details about their nationality.
The three ‘slaves’ were never allowed outside unaccompanied and spent the vast majority of their lives confined to the property in Lambeth, south London, described by police as an “ordinary house in an ordinary street”.
The women’s ordeal finally came to an end last month when the 57-year-old contacted a charity after watching a television programme about domestic slavery.
She told charity workers that she had been held against her will in a house in Lambeth, south London for more than 30-years.
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