A TRAVELLER family recruited some of the “most vulnerable in society” then forced them to work in conditions reminiscent of a “concentration camp”, a court heard yesterday.
Seven members of the Connors family are standing trial on charges relating to servitude and forced labour.
Their alleged victims were plucked from homeless centres, soup kitchens and the street, held against their will and exploited, it is claimed. Their heads were shaved and they were verbally abused and sometimes beaten.
Dozens were put to work for up to 19 hours a day carrying out hard physical labour or laying block paving for the family business, Luton Crown Court heard.
One victim told police that “hundreds” had been recruited by the family. Another that he slept in a converted horse box and had suffered seven years of abuse, starvation and torture.
“They treated me like a slave, and that’s putting it mildly,” he said.
A third said that he was relieved when police raided the site last September, but would be “looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life”.
Over the years many managed to escape but others “lost the will to resist,” said Frances Oldham QC, prosecuting.
“This was a well established and long running system,” she said.
“Various forms of authority and intimidation were used.
“We are talking here about men often isolated from normal family or social contact, with low self-esteem.
“We are talking about men who knew that those who crossed the Connors family suffered violent revenge.”
She added: “They may not in the strict sense have been slaves but they were not free men.”
Tommy Connors Snr, aged 52, his children Josie, 30, Johnny, 28, Tommy, 26, James, 24, Patrick, 20, and son-in-law James John Connors, 34, sat impassively in the dock as their alleged crimes were outlined. Labourers were held at a suc- cession of travellers’ sites, eventually residing at the Greenacres site in Leighton Buzzard, Beds, the court heard.
They were paid little or nothing for their work and were sometimes lucky to get one meal a day. They did physical work for six days a week, then went doorto-door selling on Sundays, it was alleged. Police found 13 workers, one of whom was living in a shed, dirty and frightened, Mrs Oldham said.
In contrast, there was a jukebox, champagne and £4,000 in cash hidden in a cooking pot in one of the Connors’s chalets, where the rooms were comfortably furnished.
The charges relate to eight workers, one of whom told police that he thought of the site “like a concentration camp”, the court was told.
The alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was living on benefits in Brighton when he was recruited from a day centre by Tommy Connors Snr and two of his sons, jurors heard. They offered a job, £50 in cash and a roof over his head. The following day the man was set to work soliciting for jobs laying block paving or asphalt. The promises were never kept, Mrs Oldham said.
The conditions he was kept in grew gradually worse, there was no lavatory on one site and he was expected to shower at a leisure centre once a week.
He was fed just once a day, sometimes not at all, and given a black eye by Tommy Connors Snr if things went wrong, the court heard. He was not allowed to the shops without permission and slept in a shed which contained “barely enough room to walk”. Later, “the interval between showers became months, sometimes,” it was alleged.
Over about 15 years, he received just £80 in cash, Mrs Oldham said. But he and the other workers were “too frightened” to complain.
Tommy Connors Snr sometimes punched him, once attacked him with a broom handle and once scratched him with his nails, drawing blood, it was alleged. A later medical examination found old fractures to his ankle and two to his ribs.
The alleged offences were initially carried out by the father of the family, Tommy Connors Snr. But later they were also conducted by his children Johnny, James, Josie, Tommy and Patrick and his son-in-law James John, the court was told.
Together, the family deny 20 charges. The trial, which is expected to last up to 12 weeks, continues.