Family forced 'most vulnerable' into hard labour

A family living on travellers' sites, including one in Bedfordshire, forced some of "the most vulnerable" people in society to work for them, a court has heard.

The Connors controlled and exploited a number of homeless people, alcoholics and drug addicts for financial gain, prosecutors say.

Victims were recruited from homeless centres, soup kitchens or simply off the streets and made to carry out daily physical labour, Luton Crown Court in Bedfordshire was told.

At the opening of the trial, Prosecutor Frances Oldham QC said: "Men were targeted because they were vulnerable, and kept on sites like camps under orders not to leave.

"Their heads were shaved. They were paid little or nothing for their work. They were on occasions verbally abused and on occasions beaten.

"They may not in the strict sense have been slaves but they were not free men."

The labourers were held against their will at a succession of travellers' sites, culminating at a site in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, known as the Greenacres site, jurors heard.

Tommy Connors Snr, James John Connors, Josie Connors, Johnny Connors, Tommy Connors Jnr, James Connors and Patrick Connors are accused of offences linked to servitude and forced labour.

They are alleged to have coerced their labourers into working for their block paving business for up to 19 hours a day, six days a week.

Ms Oldham said: "The evidence suggests that the Connors family made very substantial amounts of money through the exploitation of the servitude and forced labour of their workers."