A doctor and his nurse wife have been found guilty of keeping a man from Nigeria as a slave for 24 years. The man Sunday Inuk, now 40, told Harrow Crown Court that he arrived in the UK from Nigeria in 1989 when he was 14 and made to look after the couple’s home and children.
Dr Emmanuel Edet and Aden Edet from Perivale in North West London have been found guilty of three slavery and cruelty charges. The couple, who had denied the charges, are sentenced to six years in prison.
The couple had moved from Nigeria to Britain in 1989 along with Inuk whom they told officials was their son. Prosecutors say he worked as an unpaid “houseboy” for 24 years, cooking, cleaning, gardening and looking after the couple’s two sons.
Inuk eventually contacted a charity after the couple went to Nigeria for Christmas in 2013 and they were arrested three months later. Sentencing the Edets on Monday at London’s Harrow Crown Court Judge Graham Arran said their behavior robbed Inuk “of the opportunity of leading a normal life”.