A man kept as a slave for nearly 26 years and forced to work for a family’s driveway business has successfully sued the government for £352,000 for denying him adequate compensation.
The vulnerable man, referred to as Victim A, was beaten, given scraps of leftover food and forced to live in filthy conditions in a caravan on a travellers’ site in Lincolnshire by his captors, the Rooney family.
The 11-member gang exploited a number of victims, who were often homeless people or men with learning disabilities, a 2017 trial at Nottingham Crown Court heard.
Victim A, who was in his fifties, waited so long for compensation that his captors have now been released from prison.
The Rooneys had amassed a £4million fortune from their driveway business, and were ordered at a Proceeds of Crime hearing in 2019 to pay just £1million if it back, mostly to their victims.
But the court offered Victim A just £12,428 under the Proceeds of Crime Act, leading his family to sue the Criminal…