24 male 'slaves' rescued by police in dawn raid on Bedfordshire caravan site

Originally posted by doobydoll

Originally posted by AnonymousFem
reply to post by woodwardjnr

 

Makes you wonder, what they were threatened with to keep them there for that long. Lets hope those victims, will get help they need, to overcome their ordeal.

I have a traveller camp about a mile down my road. I had few problems with them when I was a kid, they used to strike fear into us at school,

Not all Traveller camps are the same. Please do not brand others like these monsters thank you.

edit on 12-9-2011 by AnonymousFem because: (no reason given)

I have to disagree with you on your last statement - the gypsy/traveller camps I have seen over the years ARE all the same. And every one of them is full of lawless miscreants who earn their living ripping off pensioners and/or stealing property from law-abiding tax-paying citizens.

If any person dares to confront any gypsy with a complaint - they invite the criminal wrath of the rest of the camp, and woe betide you and your property from then on.

Gypsy kids are raised like animals by their animal parents, with no respect for non-travellers nor their property, and with no consideration for the communities they destroy whilst on their travels.

And they pay NO taxes whatsoever.

I don't think I have ever met a Gypsy here in the US. Maybe I have but have never been told that is what they were. The worst things the newspapers here say about them is that they scam people in different construction things..like not using enough asphalt on driveways. I have never heard really anything bad about them other than minor things. We do have problems with cults and illegal immigrants.

Maybe the people who did this should just be held accountable for being evil and not Gypsy. But then again, never actually having met a Gypsy, perhaps I am just ignorant.

I sincerely hope that the ones responsible for enslaving these people will be remanded in custody pending investigations, because if they are released on bail, you can betcha bottom dollar they will up sticks and move as far away as possible to escape justice - just like they always do.

Unfortunatley the occurance of Gypsys ( sorry if I'm not being politically correct using this term) holding vulnerable people captive is probably alot more rife around the UK than people think. not so long ago I was personally involved in such a case in my capacity of a drug and alcohol social worker,

without breaking any sort of confidentiallity the brief scenario was this:

A new client was put onto my caseload as being herion dependant, I was informed the only way of contacting the client was by cell phone, after 3 days of trying to no avail I took it upon myself to visit the clients address. Now the only reason this client was referred to me was due to the current change taking place in the benefits system, without going too deeply into it this client would be unable to claim any benefit untill he could get some form of letter from a stautory agency regarding his addiction.
When I turned up at the clients address to my horror I found it was a travellers site, where as I entered I was approached by 3 travellers along with their dogs, needles to say as a lone female I was very un-nerved. I explained who I was and who I had come to see and was told that I would not be able to see him, at this point I decieded to leave.


After numerous attempts to contact the client I eventually spoke to him by phone and managed to arrange to go back to the site and collect him to bring him into the office. When I got there I was once again greeted by a couple of travellers with their dogs who had brought my client to see me.


the whole story is rather long winded so the edited version is: client had learning disabilities and had lived with mum all his life, when mum died he was made homeless and these "Nice traveller people" who subsequently gave him a roof over his head, introduced and finally got him addicted to heroin and then kept him away from the outside world basically being their slave.

The travellers finally let him speak to me as when he got his benefit money they would take it from him, and now he was in the process of having his benefits stopped they realised that if they didnt do something about it they would be keeping him there with no money coming in.

Upshot of the story is together myself and my senior manager managed to find him a drug rehab inpatient place out of the county and went along with police to collect him and take him there, he finally got clean mid August and we found him some sheltered accomodation out of county so he is safe and well.

This all happened on the south coast of the UK in a really well known popular holiday destination, and believe me if it is happening here it could happen anywhere.

Although I now have no contact with this client I often think of him and wonder how different a life he could have been living had our paths not crossed, or if on that first visit to the traveller site I had been so put off by the intimidation I had put this client to the bottom of my paperwork pile.

Ha ha just to add Not all us social workers are child snatching bad people

Originally posted by serendipity59
Unfortunatley the occurance of Gypsys ( sorry if I'm not being politically correct using this term) holding vulnerable people captive is probably alot more rife around the UK than people think. not so long ago I was personally involved in such a case in my capacity of a drug and alcohol social worker...

Both my wife and I have had dealings with gypsies in our professional capacities and the experiences have never been nice, and has never done anything to dispel any of the stereotypes - if anything it has only been worse. Fair enough, in my capacity I'm never a welcome sight but my wife is in the medical profession and you'd think they would be glad to see her!

My (eastern european) wife tells me that we're lucky that UK gypsies/travellers are so polite, law-abiding and well behaved compared to the ones in her home country

Update on this article it seems there might be more than meets the eye on this.

An individual who was, interviews on Sky News yesterday stated. That he was not tortured or anything while living at the site. He also stated that the police tried to force him to go along with them. When he refused. They threatened to detain hi under the Mental Health Act. He had to give them his fathers and brothers telephone numbers so they could contact them and make sure he was telling the truth.

I think there may be more to this than we are lead to believe.

Here are some more updates on this:

Nine of 24 'slaves' are refusing to help with police inquiries, it has emerged

Remaining 15 continue to be assessed for medical and welfare needs

Four from same family have been charged with keeping four against their will

Alleged victims lured from soup kitchens, benefit offices and hostels

Youngest was 17. He has rejoined his family

Daily Mail

Originally posted by AnonymousFem
Update on this article it seems there might be more than meets the eye on this.

An individual who was, interviews on Sky News yesterday stated. That he was not tortured or anything while living at the site. He also stated that the police tried to force him to go along with them. When he refused. They threatened to detain hi under the Mental Health Act. He had to give them his fathers and brothers telephone numbers so they could contact them and make sure he was telling the truth.

I think there may be more to this than we are lead to believe.

Here are some more updates on this:

Nine of 24 'slaves' are refusing to help with police inquiries, it has emerged

Remaining 15 continue to be assessed for medical and welfare needs

Four from same family have been charged with keeping four against their will

Alleged victims lured from soup kitchens, benefit offices and hostels

Youngest was 17. He has rejoined his family

Daily Mail

edit on 13-9-2011 by AnonymousFem because: (no reason given)

Hmmm

Sounds like the start of some kind of campaign against gypsies??

reply to post by EvanB


Well you tell me, with this eviction which is about to happen in Dale. It is just a coincidence, that this has happened, and the police are denying knowing anything about it until April this year.

So why have the press reported that the police knew about it since 2008. It just does not add up.

reply to post by EvanB


I remember a few years back I stayed in four different hostels in London for about 8 days. Good thing I didn't go to one of these travellers sites

I remember this conversation I had in Eastern Europe regarding gypsies. I was told the gypsies in the former Yugoslavia that live in cardboard boxes and beg on the streets were muslim gypsies. He said all the christian gypsies had jobs and homes.

I'm not sure what kind of gypsies there are in the UK...the only ones I ever saw were from the movie Snatch

I remember last year and a couple years ago France and Italy had big problems with Romanian Gypsies. There was a big squabble between those two countries and the European Union over the issue.

Originally posted by serendipity59
Unfortunatley the occurance of Gypsys ( sorry if I'm not being politically correct using this term) holding vulnerable people captive is probably alot more rife around the UK than people think. not so long ago I was personally involved in such a case in my capacity of a drug and alcohol social worker,

without breaking any sort of confidentiallity the brief scenario was this:

A new client was put onto my caseload as being herion dependant, I was informed the only way of contacting the client was by cell phone, after 3 days of trying to no avail I took it upon myself to visit the clients address. Now the only reason this client was referred to me was due to the current change taking place in the benefits system, without going too deeply into it this client would be unable to claim any benefit untill he could get some form of letter from a stautory agency regarding his addiction.
When I turned up at the clients address to my horror I found it was a travellers site, where as I entered I was approached by 3 travellers along with their dogs

, needles to say as a lone female I was very un-nerved. I explained who I was and who I had come to see and was told that I would not be able to see him, at this point I decieded to leave.


After numerous attempts to contact the client I eventually spoke to him by phone and managed to arrange to go back to the site and collect him to bring him into the office. When I got there I was once again greeted by a couple of travellers with their dogs who had brought my client to see me.


the whole story is rather long winded so the edited version is: client had learning disabilities and had lived with mum all his life, when mum died he was made homeless and these "Nice traveller people" who subsequently gave him a roof over his head, introduced and finally got him addicted to heroin and then kept him away from the outside world basically being their slave.

The travellers finally let him speak to me as when he got his benefit money they would take it from him, and now he was in the process of having his benefits stopped they realised that if they didnt do something about it they would be keeping him there with no money coming in.

Upshot of the story is together myself and my senior manager managed to find him a drug rehab inpatient place out of the county and went along with police to collect him and take him there, he finally got clean mid August and we found him some sheltered accomodation out of county so he is safe and well.

This all happened on the south coast of the UK in a really well known popular holiday destination, and believe me if it is happening here it could happen anywhere.

Although I now have no contact with this client I often think of him and wonder how different a life he could have been living had our paths not crossed, or if on that first visit to the traveller site I had been so put off by the intimidation I had put this client to the bottom of my paperwork pile.

Ha ha just to add Not all us social workers are child snatching bad people

Things like that do happen everywhere..I know of one poor 18 year old lad a good 14 years ago who was left to his own devices in a council flat once our local mental hospital had closed down. The local heroin addicts soon had him locked up, abused, stole all his money and flogged his stuff. The authorities that left him there to rot didn't have a damn clue about it until worried neighbours took matters into their own hands.

Now look at this poor lass..www.bbc.co.uk...
She no doubt fell victim to loathsome individuals like the lad above did only people failed to help her in time.

This sort of thing can happen anywhere, to the most vulnerable of society, by many a scumbag. Pointing fingers at travellers doesn't do anyone any favours right now.

reply to post by EvanB


It's a bizarre story with some of the slaves saying they were happy where they were, this is either true, the Stockholm effect or fear of reprisal.

Also interesting to see who they targeted. As I currently volunteer at a drop in centre for young people, it's easy to see why these vulnerable people can become targets. No home , no family, no job. Easy prey for the unscrupulous.

It will be interesting to see how this story develops.

Originally posted by serendipity59
Unfortunatley the occurance of Gypsys ( sorry if I'm not being politically correct using this term) holding vulnerable people captive is probably alot more rife around the UK than people think. not so long ago I was personally involved in such a case in my capacity of a drug and alcohol social worker,

without breaking any sort of confidentiallity the brief scenario was this:

A new client was put onto my caseload as being herion dependant, I was informed the only way of contacting the client was by cell phone, after 3 days of trying to no avail I took it upon myself to visit the clients address. Now the only reason this client was referred to me was due to the current change taking place in the benefits system, without going too deeply into it this client would be unable to claim any benefit untill he could get some form of letter from a stautory agency regarding his addiction.
When I turned up at the clients address to my horror I found it was a travellers site, where as I entered I was approached by 3 travellers along with their dogs

, needles to say as a lone female I was very un-nerved. I explained who I was and who I had come to see and was told that I would not be able to see him, at this point I decieded to leave.


After numerous attempts to contact the client I eventually spoke to him by phone and managed to arrange to go back to the site and collect him to bring him into the office. When I got there I was once again greeted by a couple of travellers with their dogs who had brought my client to see me.


the whole story is rather long winded so the edited version is: client had learning disabilities and had lived with mum all his life, when mum died he was made homeless and these "Nice traveller people" who subsequently gave him a roof over his head, introduced and finally got him addicted to heroin and then kept him away from the outside world basically being their slave.

The travellers finally let him speak to me as when he got his benefit money they would take it from him, and now he was in the process of having his benefits stopped they realised that if they didnt do something about it they would be keeping him there with no money coming in.

Upshot of the story is together myself and my senior manager managed to find him a drug rehab inpatient place out of the county and went along with police to collect him and take him there, he finally got clean mid August and we found him some sheltered accomodation out of county so he is safe and well.

This all happened on the south coast of the UK in a really well known popular holiday destination, and believe me if it is happening here it could happen anywhere.

Although I now have no contact with this client I often think of him and wonder how different a life he could have been living had our paths not crossed, or if on that first visit to the traveller site I had been so put off by the intimidation I had put this client to the bottom of my paperwork pile.

Ha ha just to add Not all us social workers are child snatching bad people

Haha, my new girlfriend does the same job as you and I am in no doubt that you are awesome people doing a tough job.

Thanks for your personal insight. It sounds like a benifit scam to me. Get a vunerable person off the street and then take their benifit money.
Travelers are close knit and very anti authorities due to some of their dodgy dealings, tax man, past trouble with police et al. They use dogs as they know that a policeman cannot arrest them if they have dogs, its classed as being "armed" plus for the intimidation value.

I reckon you are right though. I would not be surprised to see more dotted about.

But as anonfem said in her update, there is more than meets the eye with this specific case as the "slaves" are refusing to press charges and have been threatend to be sectioned under the mental health act unless they do

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
reply to post by EvanB

 

It's a bizarre story with some of the slaves saying they were happy where they were, this is either true, the Stockholm effect or fear of reprisal.

Also interesting to see who they targeted. As I currently volunteer at a drop in centre for young people, it's easy to see why these vulnerable people can become targets. No home , no family, no job. Easy prey for the unscrupulous.

It will be interesting to see how this story develops.

My scum chav aunt and her family pulled off this type of thing with my Nan. They lived in her house rent free, stole her pension, was used as a slave baby sitter and even weeks after she died my aunt still cashed her pension which is how we found out (fraud)
Its not just gypsies who do this but many others over the country.
I think that we are seeing the start of an anti gypsy campaign. The government have no control over their money or them.

I seem to remember nazi germany went down this route