Two senior NHS workers are suspected of secretly enslaving a man for a quarter of a century.
Scotland Yard is investigating after a Nigerian man walked into a police station and claimed he was being held as a slave.
Ofonime Sunday Edet, 38, said he has been held against his will since being trafficked to Britain in 1989, when he was just 13.
'Kept as a slave': Two senior NHS workers are suspected of secretly enslaving a man for a quarter of a century. Ofonime Sunday Edet, 38, said he has been held against his will since being trafficked to Britain in 1989, when he was just 13. File picture
Edet told officers he was enslaved by a couple in his native Nigeria who promised him work, lodging and an education so he could support his family.
Instead, he claims, he was lured to Britain and forced to undertake menial tasks for years for little or no pay while being threatened not to speak to anyone else.
He was inspired to break free by the national outcry surrounding the release last October of a group of women held in a cult-like Maoist ‘slave house’.
The three women were rescued by a specialist charity after spending three decades in the thrall off an ultra far-left communist group.
It is believed Mr Edet tried to break free several times before, including once as long as 10 years ago, only to be rebuffed by the authorities.
After escaping he told police he contacted them before, as well as social services and an MP but was apparently told ‘there is nothing we can do’.
Mr Edet’s two alleged captors, Dr Emmanuel Edet, 59, and his wife Antan Edet, 56, have been charged with holding a person in servitude and immigration offences.
Dr Edet is a respected gynaecologist who worked for Surrey County Council and has written several academic works on child welfare.
He is an expert on teenage pregnancy and who worked as a non-clinical adviser and is the author of guidelines followed by hundreds of health workers.
Investigating: His alleged captors Dr Emmanuel Edet and wife Antan Edet, of Perivale, West London, are charged with holding a person in slavery or servitude and immigration offences following the investigation by Scotland Yard's Human Trafficking Unit
His wife is a senior ward manager at Ealing Hospital, less than four miles from their modern terraced home in Perivale, North West London.
Neighbours reacted with shock to their arrest last night, describing them as a ‘perfectly ordinary couple’ with whom they exchanged gifts at Christmas.
'It is hard to believe this can be true. Everyone assumed the man was their grown-up son, who simply never left home'
Scotland Yard is investigating after a Nigerian man walked into a police station and claimed he was being held as a slave.
Ofonime Sunday Edet, 38, said he has been held against his will since being trafficked to Britain in 1989, when he was just 13.
'Kept as a slave': Two senior NHS workers are suspected of secretly enslaving a man for a quarter of a century. Ofonime Sunday Edet, 38, said he has been held against his will since being trafficked to Britain in 1989, when he was just 13. File picture
Edet told officers he was enslaved by a couple in his native Nigeria who promised him work, lodging and an education so he could support his family.
Instead, he claims, he was lured to Britain and forced to undertake menial tasks for years for little or no pay while being threatened not to speak to anyone else.
He was inspired to break free by the national outcry surrounding the release last October of a group of women held in a cult-like Maoist ‘slave house’.
The three women were rescued by a specialist charity after spending three decades in the thrall off an ultra far-left communist group.
It is believed Mr Edet tried to break free several times before, including once as long as 10 years ago, only to be rebuffed by the authorities.
After escaping he told police he contacted them before, as well as social services and an MP but was apparently told ‘there is nothing we can do’.
Mr Edet’s two alleged captors, Dr Emmanuel Edet, 59, and his wife Antan Edet, 56, have been charged with holding a person in servitude and immigration offences.
Dr Edet is a respected gynaecologist who worked for Surrey County Council and has written several academic works on child welfare.
He is an expert on teenage pregnancy and who worked as a non-clinical adviser and is the author of guidelines followed by hundreds of health workers.
Investigating: His alleged captors Dr Emmanuel Edet and wife Antan Edet, of Perivale, West London, are charged with holding a person in slavery or servitude and immigration offences following the investigation by Scotland Yard's Human Trafficking Unit
His wife is a senior ward manager at Ealing Hospital, less than four miles from their modern terraced home in Perivale, North West London.
Neighbours reacted with shock to their arrest last night, describing them as a ‘perfectly ordinary couple’ with whom they exchanged gifts at Christmas.
'It is hard to believe this can be true. Everyone assumed the man was their grown-up son, who simply never left home'
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