An African girl was forced to work as a "slave" for 16 years. The neighbors have helped her escape.

For 16 years, Mohamed Touré and Denise Cros-Touré – the two descendants of powerful Guinean political families, lived and worked in the wealthy suburbs of Dallas, Southlake.

The background of the couple comes from an elite clbad: Toure was the son of the first President of Guinea and Cros-Toure's father was secretary of state. In Texas, the couple promoted African businesses, organized cultural festivals, and wrote in the newspapers about their philanthropy. His children practiced sports, graduated from high school and went to university.

Meanwhile, a girl called Djena Diallo He lived with them. Like them, he came from Guinea. He has traveled at weddings, graduation and sporting events for the children of Touré. For the rest of the world, He seemed to be a member of the family.

But at home, according to federal prosecutors, the dynamics of the family was very different.

Diallo was taken to the United States at the age of 5, the authorities informed. She said that she did not know anyone and that she did not speak English. Les Toures, she said, forced her to cook, clean and look after her children without paying anything. He did not go to school either. Diallo told the authorities that they beat her, they called her "dog" and "useless", and they banished her to a nearby park as a punishment, where she slept on a bench.

After 16 years under his control – in 2016 – Diallo finally fled and then told his experience to the police. Toure and Cros-Toure were arrested, charged and sentenced to federally forced labor, a plot to house foreigners and to perpetrate this last crime.

Now they will go to jail.

On Monday, District Judge Reed O'Connor sentenced Toure and Cros-Toure, both 58, to seven years in prison and ordered them to pay $ 288,620.24 in the concept of restitution. They will be deported to Guinea after serving their prison sentence.

"Cases of forced labor trafficking are notoriously difficult to prosecute – in part because victims are often afraid to rely," said US lawyer Erin Nealy Cox in a statement from the Justice Department. "It took a lot of courage for this young woman to tell her story in court, she was brought to this very young country, under pressure to keep her quiet and forced to work for this family without being paid for 16 years. "

When the case was tried in January, the couple's lawyers described them as benevolent and charitable. They argued that Diallo's father sent the girl to the Toures so that she could "to have a better life in the USA", informed the Dallas Morning News. The defense stated that Diallo he had invented a false story about his education "Destroy the family that greeted her."

The cleaning of the girlthey said, did not differ from those expected by Toure's children.

"It's one of the toughest things I've had to face," Cros-Toure told the federal judge Monday before his conviction, according to the Fort Worth Star Worth. "We open our house to everyone and to our hearts."

Toure said thatHis wife loved Diallo as a girl. "We thought the truth would be revealed," said Toure.

Those who support the couple echoed this sentiment in the audience, reported Star-Telegram. The children of La Toure testified in favor of their parents, as well as their neighbors and their friends. They described the loving and generous family.

The couple's lawyers argued that Diallo lived in freedom, she had social networks, went on holiday with the family and could leave the house whenever she wanted.

But the prosecutors and Diallo presented a radically different version of the facts.

They said that the girl had been sent alone to the United States when she was small, against the will of her mother, to be the servant of the toure. Her mother tried to hide her and prevent her from being taken away, prosecutors said, because "she did not want her daughter to be someone's slave."

Diallo testified that the couple badaulted her physically, emotionally and verbally. They beat him several times, he said. even with a belt and an electric cable, and they called it "slave". They shaved his head and washed it out with a hose.

Once, as punishment, Cros-Touré would have driven Diallo out of the house. She slept in a park and stayed warm using the public toilets hand dryer, officials said. "They isolated her from her family and society and they prevented him from receiving an education, while their own children attended school and university, "said the Justice Department in a statement.

After two particularly grueling years, Diallo testified that he was planning to escape with the help of friends and neighbors, according to the same source. Dallas Morning News. In August 2016, he managed to escape and then moved to a former neighbor's home in the suburbs of Houston.

"I hope that the pain of today will bring some degree of justice and healing to the victim, who has suffered incalculable trauma as a result of the atrocious crimes of the accused, "said Eric Dreiband, Deputy Attorney General, in a statement issued by the Department of Justice." The defendants have stolen her childhood and work for years, enriching herself while leaving her pain and with an uncertain future. She is very grateful to all those who supported her and continues to show her support for the victim while trying to rebuild her life ",