Jailed for 80 years, the traveller family that kept 18 men as slaves

A TRAVELLER family who held 18 men as slaves during more than a quarter of a century of abuse were jailed yesterday.

The Rooney clan forced victims to work 12-hour days paving driveways – spending the £1.5million proceeds on holidays, cars and cosmetic surgery.

Yesterday the nine travellers were jailed for a total of almost 80 years – with sentences ranging from five years and ten months to 15 years and nine months. Two more were given suspended sentences.

Judge Timothy Spencer QC told the gang: ‘You preyed upon men who, for a variety of reasons, had fallen on hard times.

‘These men were stripped of their dignity and humanity, and were consigned to a life of drudgery. The product of their drudgery was your enrichment.’ He said the men had been ‘cowed into submission’ by attacks with weapons such as garden rakes.

One man was beaten by a ‘lynch mob’ and left injured in a caravan for days because he returned a car with no petrol.

The judge described the offences as ‘chilling in their mercilessness’ and said the gang regarded the victims as ‘possessions’.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Martin Rooney Sr, 57, and wife Bridget, 55, were the ‘matriarch and patriarch’ and ‘could have stopped’ the exploitation. They were locked up along with 31-year-old twin sons Patrick and John, who were each handed sentences of more than 15 years, and 23year-old Martin Jr.

The others jailed were John Rooney, 53, Peter Doran, 36, Gerard Rooney, 46, and Lawrence Rooney, 47. Patrick Rooney, 54, and Martin Rooney, 35, were given suspended sentences. The victims were lured by the promise of work and free accommodation and food.

Some had learning disabilities or mental-health problems, while others were addicted to drink or drugs.

All were kept in line with threats or psychological abuse, with at least one victim forced to dig his own grave. The men

‘Stripped of their dignity’

were housed in dilapidated caravans at Drinsey Nook and Washingborough in Lincolnshire and fed leftovers.

Police believe one of the victims, who were all between 18 and 63, was held for 26 years. His sister said he had been ‘psychologically damaged’.

Over four trials, the gang were convicted of charges including conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, conspiracy to defraud, actual bodily harm, and unlawful wounding.

Police smashed the slavery ring in 2014. At the trial, Patrick Rooney claimed what happened at Drinsey Nook was ‘no different’ from what went on at other traveller sites.