The elderly couple suspected of keeping three women slaves in their Brixton home for three decades are reported to be former Maoist activists.
The BBC are reporting the couple to be leading figures at Brixton’s Mao Zedong memorial Centre during the 1970s. It was as part of this Maoist collective that the couple were previously arrested by the police along with three others from the centre, although it is currently unknown whether they were charged.
The couple of Indian and Tanzanian origin were arrested on Thursday over immigration offences and on suspicion of holding the women in slavery where they suffered physical and mental abuse. They have been released on bail until January.
Neighbours in Peckford Place in Brixton were interviewed about the couple over the weekend, with the Daily Mail reporting that one neighbour received 500 letters from one of the women describing her misery and “unspeakable torment” over an eight year period.
37 police officers from the Met’s human trafficking unit are currently investigating the case.
