The ordeal of an immigrant enslaved by an Australian couple for 8 years

A young Indian girl was held for 8 years as a slave in a corner of a suburban house in Australia, in subhuman conditions. When they saved her, Police found her in a puddle of urine and weighed only 40 kilograms.

The couple accused of detaining her allegedly lied and claimed not to know her when she collapsed in July 2015 at her home in Melbourne. The victim had a temperature of only 28.5 ° C and was on the verge of death when she was taken to hospital in serious condition.

Traumatized and suffering from serious health problems, she spent more than two months in the hospital recovering, and for much of that time no one knew his real identity.

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The man and woman who held her are both accused of treating the woman as her slave between July 2007 and July 2015.

The couple’s trial, which cannot be identified for legal reasons, began on Wednesday in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Prosecutor Richard Maidment said the woman came to Melbourne from her home in Tamil Nadu, southern India, to care for the couple’s three children in 2007.

Eight years later, paramedics discovered that she was emaciated, weighed only 40 kg, and had sepsis and untreated type 2 diabetes.

It was the woman who called 911 after discovering the young woman had passed out at her home in Mount Waverley and told the operator he only knew the name. He claimed he came to stay with them, but left several times after receiving calls from strangers.

The victim also lied at the time, although she later told authorities that she was still under the influence and control of the couple, and that I was afraid to be in Australia illegally. Her visa expired in August 2007 and her passport in 2011.

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Maidment said the couple were accused of seriously undermining their fundamental rights and freedoms, including their the ability to leave your home, communicate with others and access medical care.

She said that even though she didn’t pay for the accommodation, all he received in payment was “$ 5 or $ 10 on his birthday”. and a few coins in exchange for cooking, cleaning, folding clothes and babysitting.

The jury heard that the woman’s son-in-law had arranged for her to work for the family, under the impression that he would be paid.

“At first he was allowed to talk on the phone with his son-in-law and daughter two or three times a year, but since around 2012 contact has been reduced to almost nothing,” Maidment said.

When her daughter emailed the couple asking to send her mother back to India, she received two responses. The first just said “fuck you” while the second said, in all caps, “tell him to fuck you”. So, his family in India contacted the Australian authorities, who opened an investigation.

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Previously, the court heard that visa applications for the woman included a letter from the couple describing her as “eternally grateful” for their help.

Maidment said the letter was written in English and was allegedly addressed to the victim, who spoke illiterate Tamil and did not know English. It was an alibi.