By The Citizen Reporter/AFP
In Summary
- Police commander Steve Rodhouse said the couple, both aged 67, were of Indian and Tanzanian origin and had been living in Britain since the 1960s.
- The couple had been previously arrested during the 1970s, police revealed on Friday, without specifying on what charges.
London. A
couple accused of keeping three women as slaves in a London house for 30
years are of Indian and Tanzanian origin and two of the victims were
part of a political "collective", police said on Saturday.
The two older victims
involved in Britain's most notorious case of modern-day slavery are
thought to have met the male suspect through a "shared political
ideology" and began living with him as part of a collective, London's
Metropolitan Police said.
The third victim, a
30-year-old woman, is believed to have spent her entire life in
servitude in a case that has stunned Britain. Police commander Steve
Rodhouse said the couple, both aged 67, were of Indian and Tanzanian
origin and had been living in Britain since the 1960s.
"We believe that two of the
victims met the male suspect in London through a shared political
ideology, and that they lived together at an address that you could
effectively call a 'collective'," he told reporters.
Police carried out
house-to-house enquiries on Saturday, speaking to residents living near
the house where the women were held in south London.
The exact location has not
been revealed but the police operation centred on a modern, low-rise
block of flats in Peckford Place in Brixton, an area known for its
vibrant nightlife and large Afro-Caribbean community.
The victims are a 69-year-old
Malaysian, a 57-year-old Irish woman and the 30-year-old Briton. They
were freed on October 25 after one of them made secret telephone contact
with a charity.
Their alleged captors, who
are suspected of immigration offences as well as involvement in forced
labour, have been provisionally freed until January pending further
investigations.
"The people involved, the
nature of that collective and how it operated is all subject to our
investigation and we are slowly and painstakingly piecing together more
information," Rodhouse said on Saturday.
The couple had been previously arrested during the 1970s, police revealed on Friday, without specifying on what charges.
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