Slavery family’s 80-year jail tally
A MILLIONAIRE gypsy family convicted of being Britain’s biggest slavery gang have been jailed for a total of almost 80 years.
The Rooney clan kept 18 homeless men as slaves for up to 26 years, beat them, “cowing them into submission”, paid little or no money to the victims and forced them to live in squalid caravans.
The Lincolnshire-based family, who made more than £1.5 million, had been convicted of a string of modern slavery offences.
Yesterday the 10 men and one woman were jailed for a total of 79 years, seven months at Nottingham Crown Court.
The two “most culpable”, twins Patrick and John Rooney, 31, were jailed for 15 years and nine months and 15-and-a-half years respectively; “matriarch” Bridget, 55, for seven years.
Martin Rooney, 57, received 10 years and nine months; Gerard Rooney, 46, six years; Lawrence Rooney, 47, six years; Martin Rooney, 23, six years and nine months; John Rooney, 53, five years and 10 months; Peter Doran, 36, six years.
Patrick Rooney, 54, and Martin Rooney, 35, were given suspended jail terms.
Passing the sentences, Judge Timothy Spencer QC said the family had been “chilling in their mercilessness”.