Mother of 10 found guilty of keeping vulnerable ‘house slave’ for 25 years
A teenage girl was forced to work as a “house slave” for more than 25 years, a court heard.
The victim, now in his mid-40s, was 16 when he moved into the squalid home of 56-year-old mother of ten Amanda Wixon in 1995 and would remain there until 2021.
Gloucester Crown Court heard he was regularly beaten, including being hit with a broom handle, causing his teeth to break.
Other abuses included having washing-up liquid squirted down his throat, bleach splashed on his face, and his head being shaved repeatedly against his will.
While Wixon restricted her food, forcing her to live on scraps, she was banned from leaving the house and forced to bathe secretly at night.
The family home in the Priors Park area of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, was overcrowded, in disrepair, with mold on the walls, sagging plaster and rubbish in the back garden.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to a false imprisonment charge, two charges of compelling a person to perform forced or compulsory labor, and four charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
The jury acquitted him of one assault charge but found him guilty of the other charges.
Wixon was released on conditional bail and will be sentenced on March 12.
Prosecutor Sam Jones told the jury: “He was kept locked up and prevented from leaving the address, was repeatedly assaulted and beaten and forced to work under threats of violence.
“He had been prevented from eating and washing for years.”
Judge Ian Lawrie KC said there was a “Dickensian quality” to the story after the woman with learning disabilities abandoned her own “dysfunctional family”.
Police went to the home in March 2021 after a tip about the woman from one of Wixon’s sons.
Officers said the woman’s bedroom looked like a “prison cell” and that the other bedrooms were messy and dirty.
He told police: “I don’t want to be here. I don’t feel safe. Mandy keeps hitting me. I don’t like it.”
“I haven’t washed for years. He doesn’t allow it.”
The court heard social services became involved with the family in the late 1990s but there was no record of any contact since then.
“The truth is nothing has been done by social services,” Mr Jones said.
The woman had no medical or dental records and had not seen a doctor in twenty years.
“The lack of records of the hospital, doctor and dentist or any contact with social services for 20 years supports the fact that she was never allowed to leave the house,” Mr Jones said.
“In the late 1990s, the woman appears to have vanished into a black hole. There is not even a single conversation where she was seen or recorded outside the house,” he added.
