UN judge ‘trafficked woman to UK to be her slave'
18 February 2025, 14:56 | Updated: 18 February 2025, 15:05
A United Nations judge deceived a young woman into coming to the UK to work as her slave while she studied for a PhD at the University of Oxford, a court has heard.
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Lydia Mugambe is accused of taking “advantage of her status” over her alleged victim in the “most egregious way”.
She prevented the young Ugandan woman from holding down steady employment and forced her to work as her maid and to provide childcare for free, the court heard.
Prosecutors allege the UN criminal tribunal judge had the intention of “obtaining someone to make her life easier and at the least possible cost to herself”.
She has been accused of threatening the victim with being returned to Uganda when her authority was questioned.
The 49-year-old, who is also a High Court judge in Uganda, is also accused of attempting to “intimidate” her alleged victim into dropping the case.
Mugambe messaged an alleged fellow conspirator to tell the young woman’s pastor: “The police wants to take me to court in like two weeks, but if (she) tells them she has dropped interest they have no case to take to court.”
Oxford Crown Court heard Mugambe told police she had “diplomatic immunity”, through her work as a judge in Uganda and that she could not be arrested.
Jurors were told the Metropolitan Police’s diplomatic team was contacted and confirmed Mugambe had no registered diplomatic immunity in the UK.
She is accused of engaging in “illegal folly” with Ugandan deputy high commissioner John Leonard Mugerwa in which they conspired to arrange for the young woman to come to the UK.
The pair are alleged to have participated in a “very dishonest” trade-off.
Mr Mugerwa allegedly arranged for the Ugandan High Commission to sponsor the woman’s entrance into the UK in exchange for Mugambe attempting to speak to a judge who was in charge of legal action Mr Mugerwa was named in.
Mugambe is accused of arranging the alleged victim’s travel “with a view to her being exploited”.
According to her UN profile page, Mugambe was appointed to the body’s judicial roster in May 2023 – three months after police were called to her address in Oxfordshire.
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Opening the case on Monday, Caroline Haughey KC said of Mugambe’s status as a judge: “You may think there can be little doubt as to her intelligence, and her ability to understand not only the basic rights of others but also the law concerning those rights.
“It is after all her role as a judge to ensure that the law is properly interpreted and applied.”
Ms Haughey KC continued: “It is the Crown’s case… that Ms Mugambe took advantage of her status over (her alleged victim) in a most egregious way.
“Ms Mugambe used her knowledge, and her power, to deceive (her alleged victim) into coming to the UK, taking advantage of her naivety to induce and deceive her into working for her for nothing.”
She added: “If there was any doubt about this, it can be removed by considering that the minute (her alleged victim) challenged Ms Mugambe’s authority and tried to have control of her own ID documents, she was threatened with being returned to Uganda and informed she had to pay back a travel debt she never even knew she had.
“A young woman brought in for the convenience of Ms Mugambe’s life but mistreated – mistreated by Ms Mugambe, a woman of power and intelligence who had no qualms in lying to not only (her alleged victim) but to the police when they sought to ensure her safety and wellbeing.”
Mugambe denies all four charges against her with the trial expected to last three weeks.
