LOOKING TOWARDS the four Irish Travellers accused under anti-slavery laws, prosecutor Ben Gumpert said they had preyed upon vulnerable homeless men, subjecting them to years of emotional and physical trauma.
The three brothers, Jimmy, Patrick and Tommy, along with their cousin and brother-in-law James snr, sat behind glass in Luton’s Magistrates Court, watched from the public gallery by their tearful wives.
For now, 15 of the 23 men taken away by police from Greenacres, and one from another location, have yet to make formal allegations against the Connors, though they are co-operating with police. The nine others have refused to do so.
Four witnesses have been chosen by police from a total of 28 men they interviewed who they believe were subjected to servitude and forced labour at Greenacres, but who had fled from 2008 onwards.
Picked up at employment exchanges or drop-in centres, all of those brought to Greenacres, Mr Gumpert said, had been promised “a roof over their head, food and cash in hand” – which, he said, had been “an extremely tempting offer” for those on society’s margins.
However, the reality was different, he charged. The men’s heads were shaven, allegedly on grounds of hygiene, while they were left to live in rundown caravans, without water, electricity or toilets, “in stark contrast” to the “luxurious” accommodation enjoyed by the Connors.
In meetings with police over recent months, one victim told detectives he had been threatened by a member of the Connors clan – one not in the dock yesterday – that he “would be killed” if he left the site.
Violence, both threatened and inflicted, convinced the victims they had reason to fear, the prosecutor said.
On occasions some of the victims had become “so habituated” to the intimidation they themselves threatened other victims who wanted to leave.
Each day, often from as early as 4am, they were taken to lay tarmac and paving stones and to carry out ground works at construction sites where, as forced labour, they were cheaper for the Connors than it cost to hire equipment, the court heard.
Once a week they were put to cleaning the Connors’ toilets and bathrooms with their bare hands since they were not given cleaning equipment, or they were put to other household chores or weeding gardens.
“It is fair to say that the violence wasn’t consistent, it was occasional – but the fear of violence was constant,” the prosecutor went on.
“It was a commonly held belief that if they made any attempt to escape that that would result in a violent beating.”
The most serious allegations of violence have been made against James Connors snr, the oldest of the four accused, who allegedly beat one of the men with steel-capped boots because he had broken a vase belonging to his wife, Josie, before she stopped him.
The victim said he had feared being beaten to death. He further alleged he had been left without medical treatment.
Another witness claims to have been beaten because he broke a broom handle, while cries of “I’ll break your head” were said to have been common in the camp.
Defence teams for the Connors have rebutted the allegations, saying they had paid train fares, court fines and other costs for some of those who had come to Greenacres, along with driving them long distances for their own court appearances.
Solicitor Daniel Jameson, appearing for James Connors, said the witnesses had criminal records far worse than the Connors, and that the defendants were confident of acquittal since the prosecution’s case was already “showing gaps at an early stage”.
The local pub in the district, he claimed, would be key to the case, since CCTV from that location would show two of the witnesses sitting drinking happily at a time when they now claim they were living in slavery and in daily fear.
