An Indian woman was allegedly held as a slave for years by a couple in Melbourne.
As per Daily Mail, a woman from Tamil Nadu, southern India, was allegedly imprisoned in a squalid corner of a suburban home for 8 years. When she was found, she was weighing just 40kg(88lb), and she was lying in a pool of her own urine.
One night in 2015, when she was rushed to the hospital, her temperature was only 28.5C(83.3°F), and she was suffering from sepsis. She was under medical care for more than two months, but no one knew her actual identity for much of the time.
Reportedly, the couple accused of enslaving the woman tried to deceive officials about how they met her, telling them she collapsed in their home. However, the family, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly held her as a slave between 2007 and 2015.
On Wednesday, February 10, Victoria’s Supreme Court began a trial for the couple.
According to prosecutor Richard Maidment QC, the woman visited Melbourne twice to take care of the family’s children. Then, in 2007, she came to the city again, and she was found 8 years later suffering from sepsis and untreated type-two diabetes.
It was later revealed that the woman’s visa expired in August 2007, and her passport in 2011. The prosecutor claims that the couple took advantage of the circumstances and interfered with her human rights. They allegedly forbid her to leave their house, talk to other people, and access healthcare. Mr. Maidment stated:
“In the early days she would be allowed to speak on the phone with her son-in-law and daughter two or three times a year, but from about 2012 contact slowed to almost nothing.”
He added that she didn’t even get paid for doing the housework, apart from “the odd $5 or $10 note on her birthday.”
The woman’s daughter even tried to persuade the couple to send her mother back to India, but, as the court heard, they replied with “get f**ked” and refused to negotiate.
However, her Indian family eventually contacted Australian authorities, who launched an investigation.
