In this room, several of the victims are said to have been crammed together and “held captive” by the British couple. They have now been sentenced to nine and 16 years in prison.
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The court believes that Maros Tancos (45) and Joanna Gomulska (46) trafficked at least 29 vulnerable people to the UK with promises of a better life, writes Sky News.
On Wednesday, they were sentenced to prison for offenses related to modern slavery, after a three-month trial. He to 16 years in prison, she to nine years. Both denied the allegations.
Slovak orphanage victims
Some of the victims grew up in orphanages in Slovakia, while others were from Hungary.
Tancos himself was from Slovakia, and had access to “clear supplies”, Mark Morrison, senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency (NCA), told Sky News.
“The mental anguish that these men and women have gone through is absolutely disgusting,” Morrison told the news media.
According to The Guardian Morrison has described how the victims had to sleep on dirty mattresses on the floor, with dirty blankets and bedding. One of the victims told the court that she slept in a room with five to six other women, while between six and seven men slept in the attic, writes BBC.
The victims are from their late teens to their 30s. They were mainly men who do not speak English, Sky News reports.
–«The gate to hell»
According to the verdict, the victims were kept as modern slaves in the house in Bristol, which has been nicknamed “The Gate to Hell”. The house had three bedrooms, and up to ten people living there at the same time.
They were held there for a decade while victims of violence and death threats, according to the verdict.
The conditions were discovered after the police in 2017 were notified by the Slovak authorities that one of the inhabitants had “escaped from slavery” at an address in Bristol.
The investigation led to the discovery of five victims on the property, and to the arrest of Tancos and Gomulska in July 2017.
Forced to work without pay
In court, it was described that the victims were deprived of their ID documents, telephones and bank cards. The couple must also have opened bank accounts and applied for loans and credit cards in their name.
It was also said that the victims were forced to work for the couple without pay. When they were paid for other jobs, the money was spent by the couple on cars and gambling, according to the court.
The court heard about how the victims worked at Tancos’ car wash in Bristol, before going to other jobs at night. According to witnesses, one of the victims was forced to work in the car wash with a broken arm, while another became pregnant and gave birth to a malnourished child.
In court, the woman who gave birth to children in captivity told about the conditions:
– I knew I could not go. There was nothing I could do, writes BBC.
According to the NCA, between 2010 and 2017, almost 300,000 British pounds were transferred from the victims’ accounts, which is equivalent to almost 3,650,000 Norwegian kroner.
For the job done at the car wash, the victims would earn 923,000 British pounds (approximately 11,221.00 Norwegian kroner) at the minimum wage, writes Sky News.
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