Mo’s house of horrors
Revealed: The west London flat where Olympic hero spent years in servitude
THIS is the apartment where Sir Mo Farah says he spent years in domestic servitude after being trafficked.
The Daily Mail found the block in Hounslow, west London, where the Olympic champion was taken aged nine.
Yesterday, Sir Mo, 39, spoke movingly of how he was forced to cook, clean and change nappies there for the family until he confided in his PE teacher and escaped.
He claimed the woman who brought him to the UK, named by friends as Nimco, did so with her two children who were both younger than him. The Olympian’s real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin but he was given the identity of the family’s eldest son, Mohamed Farah, to get into Britain.
They were met at the airport by her husband, named locally as Mukhtar Farah, and taken to the £160,000 three-bedroom flat in the four-storey 1950s apartment block. Neighbours confirmed Sir Mo returned there a little over a month ago with the BBC production company, but the current owner would not let anyone in.
Farah Kamran, who lives below Sir Mo’s old flat, said: ‘My friend who used to live here said Mo Farah used to play football with him. It is incredibly brave of Mo to come forward and share his private life with everyone.’
The four-time Olympic gold medallist told the BBC he ‘wasn’t treated as part of the family’ by the woman and was made to feel like someone who worked there.
Yesterday he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I wasn’t allowed to play with any other kids, I wasn’t allowed to be myself.
I had to cook, clean, and that was... that was tough for me. And all I ever wanted as a kid was to have my parents.
‘On a day-to-day basis it was all around them... Cook, clean, pick them up, change diapers – everything you can think of, I was doing it.’
Arnette Santos, 60, who has lived in the next block along for 33 years, said she remembered Sir Mo, adding: ‘We had no idea anything like that was going on... It’s so sad that this could happen.’ When he was 11 Sir Mo was allowed to attend Feltham Community College where he confided in PE teacher, Alan Watkinson, who contacted social services.
‘I wasn’t allowed to be myself’
Sir Mo feared going public now could see him deported, but the Home Office has confirmed it will not take any action.
Scotland Yard yesterday said it had launched an investigation into Sir Mo’s alleged trafficking.