Australian couple enslaved woman at home for eight years

A couple from Melbourne, Australia were sent to jail for keeping Indian grandmother has been hiding at home for eight years in conditions of slavery, in what was described in court as a “dirty secret”.

Kumuthini Kannan and her husband Kandasamy were sentenced by the Supreme Court in Victoria on Wednesday. Ms. Kannan was sentenced to eight years in prison and her husband to six years.

The 53-year-old woman and her 57-year-old husband were convicted of knowingly possessing and exercising the right to own a slave between 2007 and 2015.

The slave was discovered when Ms Kannan was forced to call paramedics after find an Indian grandmother shivering in a pool of urine in July 2015.

But He only called the ambulance after taking his children to a concert at school.

When paramedics found the victim, he weighed only 40 kg and his temperature dropped to 28.5 ° C. He had no teeth and doctors discovered he had diabetes and sepsis.

“Your life was largely controlled in the privacy of your own home, and you were careful to maintain your true status in front of others in your community so that your dirty secret was kept.”Judge John Champion said upon his conviction.

The judge found the couple in control of almost every aspect of the woman’s life and criticized her behavior.

“They both exploited a vulnerable person tremendously and they should be ashamed of them,” said Judge Champion.

The victim spent two months in hospital recovering and, at 67, lives in an elderly care facility on the outskirts of Melbourne. You will need to use a catheter for the rest of your life.

For much of their stay in the hospital, no one knew the true identity of the victim, and the couple maintained a “litany of lies” to prevent authorities from finding out the truth.

“You (Ms. Kannan) told a litany of lies intended to deceive you and distance you and your husband from the real circumstances of the person who had been admitted to the hospital,” the judge said during the hearing, according to Australian media.

The couple did not disclose the woman’s whereabouts when questioned by police at the behest of relatives of the grandmother, which the court interpreted as “ruthless conduct on the part of the two.

According to the judge, the victim was a woman “Uneducated, illiterate and vulnerable”, This placed her in a significant power imbalance between herself and her employers, making her the prey of a life “dominated” by financial struggle and circumstances of deprivation.

The judge pointed out that slavery was a “Crime against humanity” and it was “disgusting” because it degraded the human condition.

According to what was learned in court, the Indian woman was from Tamil Nadu. Before falling into slavery in 2007, she had worked twice with the couple who held her captive for eight years.

Initially, contact was made through a son-in-law, who told him that his duties would be to take care of household chores, cook and take care of the couple’s children. On the Indian woman’s third trip to Australia, she stayed to live in the Kann house, who only paid him $ 3.39 a day.

The grandmother told the jury that she had beaten with a frozen chicken, they had poured him hot water, they had cut him up and he had only one hour of rest each night.

In an interview with police recorded and broadcast to the jury, the woman said she had no choice but to do what husband and wife wanted.

The judge criticized the couple’s actions, saying neither showed remorse or regret for their actions.

“On behalf of the Australian community, this court condemns him for his scandalous behavior”said the judge.

The judge determined that Ms. Kannan was more morally guilty of the crime, but accepted that she suffered from major depressive disorder and anxiety. The woman was in charge of the house and told the victim what to do while her husband had a “peripheral and passive” role within the house.

Mr. Kannan will be eligible for parole in three years and his wife will be eligible after four years.

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