Jail for traveller who made slave of homeless Scot
A MAN has been jailed for four years after keeping a Scot as a slave for more than a decade and forcing him into back-breaking work laying paving slabs.
Johnny Moloney befriended Cameron Biggar, now 43, after finding him homeless in London in 2004.
The 30-year-old traveller told the desperate Scot – who started sleeping rough after losing his job as a night porter – he would find him work and persuaded him to live with him in Hertfordshire.
When Mr Biggar arrived, however, he was promptly housed in a shed with no sanitation.
Moloney forced Mr Biggar, from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, to work at least 14 hours a day laying paving slabs until he was arrested on Christmas Day 2014, when his victim called police, saying: ‘I want to be protected from slavery.’
Mr Biggar received nothing for the first eight years as ‘repayment’ to Moloney for taking him off the streets but earned around £30 a day for the following two years – the equivalent of just over £2 an hour.
St Albans Crown Court heard on Friday how Moloney – also known as Johnny Murphy – verbally and physically abused Mr Biggar, slapping him in the face.
He got Mr Biggar a passport but only allowed him to use it on escorted trips around Europe, where he was again forced to lay paving slabs.
At one point, Mr Biggar managed to escape. He was quickly found by Moloney, who beat him and ordered him back to work.
Moloney was arrested in December 2014 and charged with know- ingly requiring another person to perform forced labour and knowingly holding a person in slavery or servitude – charges he denied. He was found guilty last week after an eightday trial and jailed for four years.
The court heard that the charges against Moloney could only apply from 2010, when the Act of Parliament on modern day slavery came into effect.
Mr Biggar told the court he saw the ‘job offer’ in 2004 as an ‘opportunity not to be homeless any more’.
Peter Shaw, prosecuting, told the court: ‘Mr Biggar was a vulnerable man in a vulnerable state in 2004. He was not in a great place, physically or mentally.’
Judge Andrew Bright, QC, echoed: ‘Cameron Biggar is a vulnerable man who suffered from alcoholism and homelessness.’
Detective Inspector Pete Frost of Hertfordshire Police said: ‘I would like to thank the victim who has spoken about his dreadful ordeal and who has helped us to bring this prosecution. He has shown strength and courage throughout this process.
‘I hope the sentence passed brings some comfort to him, knowing that the man who treated him in such an appalling manner has been punished for what he did.
‘To think that another human being was subjected to such cruelty and suffering and in such a degrading manner is abhorrent and almost defies belief.
‘I would ask anyone who has any suspicions that someone could be being subjected to modern slavery to call police immediately, or the Modern Slavery helpline on: 0800 0121 700.’
Mr Shaw added: ‘The work was hard physical labour, consisting of digging driveways and carrying bricks.
‘He was completely exploited by Moloney for financial gain and was treated in an appalling way.’
Moloney’s wife Shanon Loveridge, 22, had faced the same charges as her husband, but they were dropped during the trial.