Peter Swailes Jr spared jail despite exploiting a vulnerable man who was locked up for 40 years
Victim discovered in squalid conditions without heating or lighting in ‘stark contrast’ to those of family dog, court told
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A man who exploited a vulnerable victim found living in a squalid shed has walked free from court.
Peter Swailes Jr, 56, was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court to a nine-month jail term, suspended for 18 months, for a modern slavery offence on Friday.
The victim had been “used and abused” for 40 years by the defendant’s father Peter Swailes Sr, the court heard. He was made to live in a horse box, a disused caravan and more recently in a shed at a traveller site in Carlisle.
The cramped shed, which he resided in for the five years up to 2018, was without heating, lighting or proper flooring and contained a soiled mattress and congealed vomit.
This was in “stark contrast” to a nearby, similar-sized shed, which was fitted with a carpet, light and gas heater and housed the family dog, prosecutors said.
Swailes Sr died last year while awaiting trial for modern slavery offences.
The Crown accepted Swailes Jr’s plea that, although he had known the victim for many years, he was unaware of the living conditions.
Swailes Jr, of Low Harker, Carlisle, accepted that from “time to time” his father would contact him and arrange for the victim to undertake work with him, and that “on occasion” he paid him less than his minimum entitlement.
Opening the case, Barbara Webster, said the victim “had few possessions to show for his 40 years’ hard work. He only had a wash bag, three second-hand coats, a few stained duvets, and CDs.”
He lived with the Swailes family for many years after being in care as a child, with Swailes Sr telling him he was his “boss”, Ms Webster said.
When officers attended the traveller site in October 2018, the victim told them he only received £10 a day for his work duties.
The court heard Swailes Jr had left the family home aged 14 in fear of his father. Judith McCullough, defending, said he and his father had not worked together and maintained separate businesses.
Judge Richard Archer told Swailes Jr: “You may not have known the true extent of (the victim’s) living conditions, or his precise IQ, but it must have been obvious to you that he did not have any real appreciation for the potential consequences of some of the work that you required him to perform at an undervalue and with little or no regard for his personal safety.”
Sentencing the father-of-five to a nine-month jail term, suspended for 18 months, he said he took into account a pre-sentence report, which assessed Swailes Jr as posing a “very low” risk of reoffending, and also his personal mitigation, including his poor health.
The charges came following a three-year investigation by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), supported by Cumbria Police and the National Crime Agency.
The victim, aged in his 60s, now lives in supported accommodation outside of Cumbria and has been helped by City Hearts, a charity providing long-term support to survivors of modern slavery.
He said: “I was kept in a padlocked shed on a mattress, unable to leave unless I was told I could. I didn’t run away because I had nowhere else to go.
“I now go on daily walks just because I can. I enjoy long walks to the shops, watching football and have made new friends.”
Martin Hill, deputy head of the CPS North West Complex Casework Unit, said: “We believe this is the first time a modern slavery victim has been able to give pre-recorded evidence for a court in England or Wales.
“It allowed an exceptionally vulnerable victim to tell his own story of what happened in his own way and ultimately contributed towards this guilty plea.”
Additional reporting by Press Association