Nigerian couple remanded in jail after enslaving man for 24 years

A doctor and his nurse wife, both of Nigerian descent but based in Britain, have reportedly been remanded in jail for enslaving a man for 24 years.

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Former NHS obstetrician, Emmanuel Edet, 61, and midwife as well as wife, Antan Edet, 58, are accused of keeping a man in forced servitude for 24 years after illegally bringing him to Britain.

Their fellow Nigerian, Ofonime Sunday Inuk, was forced to serve as a “houseboy” to the couple after telling immigration officials he was their teenage son when they they first arrived Britain in 1989.

Sadly, over the next 24 years he worked with no pay for up to 17 hours a day, also looking after the couple’s two sons, cooking, cleaning and gardening.

Inuk was also reportedly forced to sleep on the corridor floor for long periods of time.

Eventually, he managed to alert a charity to his plight after the couple had travelled home to Nigeria for Christmas in 2013 leading to their arrest the following March.

Dr and Mrs Edet, from Perivale, north west London, were found guilty by a jury last month of cruelty to a child under 16, servitude and assisting unlawful immigration, even as they remained impassive to the sentences handed down.

Sentencing the couple at Harrow Crown Court, Judge Graham said their treatment of Mr Inuk, now 40, left him “conditioned” to his plight, saying:

“He was conditioned to the extent that that he did not ask for what he wanted because he expected his request to be refused. He was paid the occasional pocket money of perhaps £10. He claims that that was only at Easter and Christmas and occasionally visitors would give him larger sums.

“He most certainly was not paid for the work that he was performing for you.The most serious aspect of your behaviour towards him was that it went on for an exceptionally long period of time, robbing him of the opportunity of leading a normal life. He suffered as a result of that treatment and has found it difficult to adjust (to) a normal life.”

The couple had apparently accrued thousands of pounds worth of payment for the 24 years period belonging to Inuk.

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The couple were jailed for three years for child cruelty, six for servitude and one for the immigration offence, all to run concurrently.

Mr Inuk revealed during the trial that his passport had been confiscated and that he had been told that if he left the house, he would be deported as an illegal immigrant.