Man who exploited disabled victim and kept him in shed given suspended sentence
4 February 2022, 11:19 | Updated: 4 February 2022, 11:54
A man has been given a suspended prison sentence after a disabled vulnerable worker was exploited for 40 years and made to live in a shed.
Peter Swailes, 56, pleaded guilty at Carlisle Crown Court on Tuesday January 18 to financially exploiting the man, who was living in a squalid six-foot shed on a residential site north of Carlisle.
He admitted conspiring to facilitate travel of another with a view to exploitation. His father, also called Peter Swailes, 81, faced the same charge but died in 2021. Peter Swailes snr had denied the charge.
Swailes, from Carlisle, was jailed for nine months, suspended for 18 months.
The victim had been "used and abused" for 40 years by the defendant's father Peter Swailes Snr, the court heard.
He was made to live in a horse box, a disused caravan and more recently in a shed on a residential site in Carlisle.
In interviews, the victim stated that he worked on farms, with the work consisting of painting, slating and tarmacking. He said he was paid as little as £10 per day.
The man was rescued at the age of 58 by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) after a tip-off in 2018.
Investigators raided Hadrian's Caravan Park in Cumbria in October where they found another shed, that a dog was living in, said to be in a better state than the victim's accommodation.
The victim was rescued in October 2018 when he was 58 years old and has since been living with supported accommodations in a community.
Modern slavery charity City Hearts said on one occasion the victim fell from a ladder while painting, breaking his back and ribs, but the Swailes removed him from hospital before he was discharged and "dragged back to his life of drudgery".
