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• Mother is jailed for enslaving woman for 25 years

Bea Swallow
BBC News, West of England

The victim's foster mother says Wixon "took advantage" of K's learning disability, forcing her to work around the house in squalid conditions for more than a quarter of a century.

“I don’t think she [K] had much understanding of it," she said.

"She just knew she’d been working hard, doing everything. Looking after the children, all the housework, cleaning, ironing, everything. She was a proper slave.

"She talks about the mould and how horrible it was. She probably just thought this was part of living.

"I don’t think she realised the full extent of it, she just knew she was suffering."

Her foster mother also described the appalling abuse K suffered at Wixon's hands and the scars left from the ordeal.

Bea Swallow
BBC News, West of England

The victim's foster mother said when K first came into her care after suffering years of abuse, she "wasn't used to love".

"It was really hard even giving her hugs, she wasn’t used to things like that," she said.

“She was a very shy, very anxious and poorly girl. No clothes, her hair was a mess. They malnourished her, she wasn’t looking good at all - pale and complaining of something wrong.

"But within the week, she turned around and started being loving."

Maisie Lillywhite
At Gloucester Crown Court

Image source, Gloucestershire Police

Speaking outside Gloucester Crown Court, Rachael Scott, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said K suffered “decades of torment, exploitation and control”.

“She was denied her freedom, made to live in appalling physical and emotional conditions and forced to act on the whim of a woman who imprisoned her," Scott said.

“Over the years of captivity, which she was only able to track by the passing of each Christmas, she was left to live off the crumbs that Wixon provided, while suffering unimaginable abuse and experiencing no acts of kindness at all.

“Despite all of this, the progress she has made since finding freedom is remarkable and a true statement of her strength."

Jonathan Holmes
Digital Journalist

Laura Burgess, senior crown prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service, was the reviewing lawyer who dealt with Wixon's case.

She told the BBC that K was "incredibly lonely" during the years she was enslaved by Wixon.

"I think Mandy Wixon was careful to ensure none of those assaults resulted in serious injury that would have meant she had to go to a hospital," Burgess added.

Maisie Lillywhite

Amanda Wixon, 56, will spend the next 13 years behind bars for modern slavery offences.

Here are top things we learned from Wixon's sentencing today:

• The mother-of-10 forced a teenage girl to work as a “house slave” for more than 25 years.
• The victim, who is now in her mid-40s, was 16 when she moved into Wixon’s home in 1996 and remained there until 2021. During that time her teeth were knocked out with a broomstick handle by Wixon, but she also lost some due to poor hygiene like many in the Tewkesbury house, including the defendant.
• The judge said there was a “Dickensian quality” to the story as it was revealed K's food was limited by Wixon, and she lived off scraps, could not leave the house and was forced to secretly wash at night.
• Sam Jones, prosecuting, said: "By the late 1990s it appears the woman disappeared into a black hole. Not a single meeting that left a record or a single sighting of her outside the house."
• K now attends college and has been on holidays abroad.

Police had no prior contact with Wixon or her family before her son called them because he was concerned about K's welfare in 2021.

Det Supt Ian Fletcher, from Gloucestershire Police, said officers had "scant” information following the call and praised the first officer who attended for immediately realising the scale of the abuse K suffered.

“His immediate actions on that day helped the victim from a life of servitude,” Fletcher said.

As well as obvious sores to her mouth and face, K was deeply malnourished, Fletcher added.

“She hadn’t left the house in a very long time,” he said.

Tess De La Mare

The mother-of-10 managed to keep K captive so long because she was “manipulative and controlling" towards her own family, according to Det Supt Fletcher.

Wixon still denies she has done anything wrong, and has shown no remorse for her actions, he said.

K told police that sometimes Wixon’s children would sneak her biscuits, but if she was caught eating them, she would get a beating.

“I think we believe that Wixon was very, very manipulative over her own family and over her own husband and her own children.

“Ultimately, it was one of Wixon’s children actually reported this to the police, so down the line they have finally come through," Fletcher added.

Det Supt Fletcher said K was treated "very differently" from Wixon’s own children.

“Our victim was totally dehumanised, I don't think Amanda Wixon saw her as being a human being - she saw her as a slave to use for her own will to make her life better," Fletcher said.

Tess De La Mare

Det Supt Fletcher said the circumstances of how K became enslaved by Wixon were “a bit blurred” due to the time that had elapsed and K’s learning disabilities.

“I think our victim probably thought that she was going to be looked after.

"But it seems quite quickly that Amanda Wixon has taken her benefits off her - taken her to the benefits office to make sure that the benefits get paid straight to her," Fletcher said.

Very soon after that, K was forced into labour for Wixon and her family, he added.

Tess De La Mare

The victim's foster mother said K was terrified of Wixon and broke down in hysterics when she accidentally bumped into her in a supermarket.

“She called her The Witch. She’s really scared of her. She’s petrified actually,” she said.

“You know, when the court case was going on, she went into a supermarket and bumped into her and she was hysterical. I mean, she was really terrified, petrified.

“She was running around. It was horrible. She was just going through the aisles and saw her. And that was it. She went absolutely mad in the supermarket.”

Tess De La Mare

Det Supt Fletcher, from Gloucestershire Police, has explained how Wixon managed to keep K hidden for so many decades.

K was initially allowed out of the house and neighbours remember seeing her, but when she was shut indoors, Wixon claimed she had moved to Scotland with a boyfriend.

"It was at that point that she was in essence kept captive inside the property, not even allowed out in the garden," Det Supt Fletcher said.

"I think on one occasion, she went to put the rubbish out and was potentially spotted by a neighbour, and that led to a beating from Wixon."

In notes to herself, K wrote about dreaming of seeing sunshine again.

Maisie Lillywhite
At Gloucester Crown Court

The judge said that Wixon could not plead ignorance about K's learning disabilities or vulnerabilities.

He said at the age of 42, it is clear how "emotionally and psychologically vulnerable" K is.

"You can't plead ignorance about her condition or her vulnerability... you effectively crushed her spirit," he said.

"Firstly, K was effectively your servant, your slave and carried out domestic work in your own.

"Secondly, it's clear to me that you taking K into your care was opportunistic for claiming her benefits."

He added that K now requires 24-hour care in the long-term, due to the neglect and psychological abuse she suffered.

Passing sentence, Judge Ian Lawrie KC said Wixon was in “permanent denial” about the impact of her offending on K.

“The gravity of your offending is so serious that I am imposing a significant period of custody,” the judge said.

“You are to be punished for a series of offences spanning 20 years. You cruelly and persistently held captive this woman. This false imprisonment ran from her later teens until early 40s.

“The enduring persistent trauma of that slavery remains. This offending was not isolated and was persistent over many years.”

Maisie Lillywhite
At Gloucester Crown Court

The judge tells Wixon she "cruelly and persistently held [the victim] captive" and "crushed her spirit".

"The enduring personal trauma, the deep psychological damage of that captivity is shown in her victim impact statement," he said.

While the judge mentioned Wixon had no previous convictions, he noted that the offences she was charged with were carried out over a period of more than 20 years.

Mandy Wixon has been sentenced to 13 years, she was told she will serve two thirds behind bars.

Maisie Lillywhite
At Gloucester Crown Court

The judge has dismissed the court for another break.

Before retiring, he reassured us the sentencing will be complete before 13:00 GMT.

Phil Mackie
At Gloucester Crown Court

Gloucester Crown Court is more than 200 years old and for that reason the way proceedings take place are unusual by modern standards.

In most newer courts, defendants appear in the dock behind a screen, and there’s a degree of separation from lawyers, police, court staff and the press.

Court One here is a grand, wood‑panelled, semi‑circular room, rather like a small amphitheatre. It looks much more like a television drama than the vast majority of cases because many TV shows use older courtrooms, no longer in use, in which to film.

Here, the defendant is brought upstairs by security guards from cells below, into the well of the court, rather than escorted in via a side door.

That means that police officers who gathered evidence against her, are sitting directly to Wixon’s right, and we are sitting on her left, barely a metre away.

Maisie Lillywhite
At Gloucester Crown Court

Hollingsworth told the court that 56-year-old Wixon had no previous convictions and should be considered as "somewhat vulnerable in her own right".

"She received limited education... she presents, in my submission, as someone with relatively low intellectuality," he said.

Hollingsworth added that the offences were "heartless, but not sophisticated".

Wixon's first husband and father of seven of her 10 children is an alcoholic, and her current husband has learning difficulties, Hollingsworth added.

A number of her children also have their own vulnerabilities.

"Your honour will also recall the messy neglected appearance of her home and of her own appearance," Hollingsworth added, asking the judge to note her "lack of any teeth".

"I would invite your honour to treat her as unsophisticated and somewhat vulnerable in her own right," he said.

Maisie Lillywhite
At Gloucester Crown Court

Defending Wixon, Edward Hollingsworth said there was no question of the harm K experienced at the hands of Wixon.

However, Hollingsworth said the sentencing guidelines were "problematic" as at the top end of the guidelines lies organised, international trafficking rings.

"The force of compulsory labour was one aspect of a much wider experience of neglect and abuse," he said.

"Not all of it, in my submission, was criminal; there is no offence of the neglect of an adult."