A Cumbrian man has admitted a human trafficking crime committed against a man believed to have been kept as a “slave” for up to 40 years.
Peter Swailes junior, 56, had previously denied conspiring with others — including his recently-deceased father, 81-year-old Peter Swailes senior — to arrange or facilitate the man’s travel with a view to exploitation.
The charge dates back to July 2015, when legislation came into force under the Modern Slavery Act, although investigators have previously voiced a belief that the victim was exploited over the course of several decades.
Specialist officers raided a residential site north of Carlisle at dawn in October 2018, after a call to a confidential helpline, and found the 58-year-old man.
He was believed to have lived in a 6ft wooden shed which contained just a chair and soiled bedding.
He was medically examined and assessed by specialist trauma officers.
Speaking after the raid, a senior investigating officer with the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, which works to protect vulnerable and exploited workers, said the man was traumatised; like a rabbit in headlights and very confused.
He had, added the officer, been sleeping in conditions that no human being should live in.
Swailes junior and his father were charged with the modern slavery conspiracy crime.
Peter Swailes senior died late last year as the pair awaited trial, while Swailes junior was due to face a jury this week.
But at Carlisle Crown Court this afternoon, he changed his plea to guilty.
This was on an agreed basis of limited involvement having not lived at the residential site and nor been aware of the man’s living conditions.
From time to time, Swailes senior would make contact and arrange for his son to work with the man.
Swailes junior accepted that, on occasion, he paid the man — whom he’d known for many years and was a regular visitor to his home — less than his minimum entitlement.
Providing an update on the victim, prosecutor Barbara Webster told the hearing: “He currently resides elsewhere, if I can put it that way. He has accommodation that he is extremely happy with. He is in regular contact. He has a carer who comes in and checks him.
“He is doing extremely well. He will be cared for until the end of his life because of everything that has been put in place by the licensing authority for him.”
Out-of-work Swailes junior, meanwhile, was receiving benefits, had suffered two strokes since 2018 and repeated mini-strokes.
“He is not in good health at all,” said his barrister, Judith McCullough.
Judge Richard Archer adjourned the case for a probation service pre-sentence report.
Swailes junior, of Low Harker, near Carlisle, was bailed and is due to be sentenced at the crown court on February 4.“
I’ve already indicated that this is a case which is so serious that a custodial sentence must follow,” said Judge Archer.
“But I will look with utmost favour on anything in the pre-sentence report, or any other documentation I read, that may allow me to suspend that sentence of imprisonment.”
