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Irish family sentenced to 79 years in prison for keeping vulnerable labour slaves

AN IRISH family have been sentenced to 79 years in prison for keeping 16 vulnerable labour slaves in ‘squalid conditions’ for 26 years.

The Rooney family, with addresses across Lincolnshire and Buckinghamshire, were sentenced yesterday at Nottingham Crown Court after a series of linked trials which began in 2016.

Previously, brothers Martin (57), John Joseph (53), Lawrence (47), Gerald (46), as well as Martin’s wife Bridget (55), and their sons Patrick and John, both 31, and Martin Jr (23), Gerald Rooney’s brother-in-law Peter Doran (36) and cousins of the four Rooney brothers, Patrick Rooney (54) and his son Martin (35) were convicted of modern slavery and fraud offences at the same court in August.

While nine of the family members received a collective 79 years and six months, two members received suspended sentences.

Over the course of the three year investigation by Lincolnshire Police, six victims of slavery were removed from the Rooney family’s sites.

Having previously located two other victims, police later traced a further 10 men who left the sites.

The Rooney family tree. (Picture: Lincolnshire Police)

Police have said all victims were extremely vulnerable – many were alcoholics and several had learning disabilities and mental health issues and were estranged from their families.

While the labourers worked in ‘squalid’ conditions the family were taking luxurious holidays to Barbados, Australia, Egypt and Mexico, bought BMWs, spa days and even cosmetic surgery.

The victims were also subjected to violence by the family, starved of food and had no access to running water while a tapped pylon was used for electricity.

The vulnerable men had no toilet facilities to use apart from nearby woods. The victims were often only paid with a packet of tobacco and alcohol.

Victims bank accounts were often used to pay for gym membership, business materials and even a soccer school course at Manchester United.

In total, 18 men between the ages of 18 and 63 had been illegally trafficked by the Rooney family members.