Jail for couple who enslaved grandma
A “PITILESS” husband and wife who committed a crime against humanity when they enslaved a woman in their Melbourne home for eight years until she was found weighing 40kg have been jailed.
Kumuthini Kannan, 53, and her husband Kandasamy, 57, were found guilty of intentionally possessing the woman as a slave and intentionally exercising the right of ownership over a slave between 2007 and 2015.
The couple was jailed by Victoria’s Supreme Court Justice John Champion on Wednesday, with Mrs Kannan ordered to spend eight years behind bars and Mr Kannan jailed for six years.
“We must rid ourselves of ingrained images of rows of men chained together at the oars of the galley or men, women and children working in fields in bondage. Slavery can be much more subtle than that,” the judge said in his remarks.
The couple committed a “crime against humanity” and this case may be the first instance of slavery relating to domestic servitude to be heard in an Australian court, Justice Champion said.
“Using or possessing a person in a condition of slavery is repugnant, degrading of the human condition and a gross breach of human rights,” he said. The enslaved grandmother was malnourished, with untreated diabetes, septicaemia and weighed just 40kg when found at the couple’s Mount Waverley property in July 2015.
However, Mrs Kannan only called an ambulance after she took her children to a school concert and then gave paramedics a false name for her victim.
The couple did not reveal the woman was in hospital when police questioned the pair at the request of the grandmother’s relatives.
“This approach to police and what you said to them was an example of pitiless and heartless conduct on the part of you both,” Justice Champion said.
The judge said the couple controlled almost all aspects of the woman’s life and freedom and slammed their behaviour. He said he was “quite convinced” the couple believed they had done nothing wrong.
“On behalf of the Australian community this court condemns you for your disgraceful conduct,” he said.
The sentence comes after a jury found the husband and wife pair guilty in April.