Bolton family jailed for slavery
A family who trafficked, enslaved and forced a man to work for free in Bolton, for almost five years, have been jailed.
32 year old Damian Siwak, 26 year old Kyrstian Siwak and 48 year old Rozalia Siwak all of Gibraltar Street in Bolton, were found guilty of facilitating the arrival in the UK of a man with the intention of exploitation and of forced labour offences.
Damian Siwak has been jailed for three years and four months, while Kyrstian Siwak and Rozalia Siwak both received sentences of two years and three months.
The court heard how the 46-year-old victim was approached in his native Poland in September 2010 and offered a job in the UK, being told he would work ‘a good wage for an honest day’s work’.
He met Kyrstian Siwak at an address in Poland and flew with him to Liverpool Airport, being told that the airfare would be taken out of his wages.
Upon landing in the UK, he was taken to the Siwaks’ home address on Greenland Road, Bolton, and his identification documents were taken away from him for ‘safe-keeping’.
He never saw them again.
The victim was immediately put to work, carrying out night shifts alongside Damian Siwak for six months without ever receiving payment.
Over the course of the following 18 months, between mid-2011 and the end of 2012, the victim continued to work for what he believed was an agency, mainly carrying out construction work.
However, he never knew how exactly the work was being arranged or received any official wage, as he was told the money he earned would be paid into a bank account controlled Rozalia Siwak.
The victim was never given any of the money he earned, and instead the Siwak family fed, clothed, gave him accommodation and paid him in cider.
The victim described the clothes as ‘shabby’, told officers he was given leftovers rather than actual meals, he was not allowed to get anything from the fridge and in his own words was introduced to ‘gypsy’ rules.
He was effectively kept under the complete control of the Siwak family, and regularly received beatings from both Kyrstian and Damian to ensure they retained an element of physical and mental dominance over him.
The family and the victim moved to a house on Spa Road, Bolton, and they continued to force him to work, often between 10 and 12 hours a day on building sites.
He ran away on several occasions, but when he was found by the Siwak family he was severely beaten and told he would be buried in a forest if he attempted to escape them again.
This treatment continued for many months, and a growing alcohol dependency alongside poor meals and terrible treatment meant the 46-year-old soon became increasingly malnourished and physically weak.
In the early stages of 2015, he was moved to an address on Deane Road, Bolton, along with two other men that the family had flown to the UK.
They, too, were treated terribly by the family and made to work long hours, for no pay, under the constant threat of beatings and brutality.
The three men frequently approached a neighbour to beg for food and cigarettes and feeling sorry for them, he offered them paid work.
When Damian and Kyrstian Siwak found out, they went to see the neighbour and threatened him, saying ‘the men from that flat are under our control and any work you want them to carry out should go through us first.’
After nearly five years of suffering at the hands of these men, the victim finally managed to escape in June 2015.
On the 8th June last year, the victim fell from a ladder and broke his ankle, an injury which forced Siwak to take him to Royal Bolton Hospital for treatment.
It was while he was at the hospital that staff became concerned for the victim’s welfare, and upon interviewing him they discovered that he had been subject to years of servitude at the hands of the Siwak family.
Hospital staff called the police and officers soon swooped to safeguard the victim and remove him from harm.
Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Mossop said:
“This is a harrowing case and involves one of the longest periods of enslavement and forced labour that I have ever come across.
“I cannot imagine the mental anguish suffered by this man, spending five years of his life at the beck and call of a family intent on exploiting him to the fullest extent.
“They worked him to the bone, day after day, week after week, month after month, never once giving him what he was owed or even treating him like a fellow human being.
“Worse still, whenever he did not do what they wanted, they beat him.
“They conditioned him to believe they were in complete control, that there was no escape.
“Such was their mental and physical dominance, that had he not suffered this injury and appeared at Royal Bolton Hospital, then I believe he would still be under their control.
“His physical deterioration over five years was startling, and their treatment left him malnourished and an alcoholic.
“The cider they provided to keep him under their control was his only outlet from the pain of his day-to-day existence.
“Luckily, this man’s story does have a relatively happy ending.
“Thanks to the keen eye of staff and the excellent safeguarding procedures at the hospital, this man was identified as being at risk and the long process of helping him to fully recover began.
“I am delighted to say that now, after superb work by our partner agencies such as the UK Human Trafficking Centre and the Salvation Army, the victim has been sober for months, has made excellent steps with his physical recovery and has started to look for paid work.
“It has been a long road, but his story demonstrates that once people are identified as potential victims of modern slavery offences, systems are now in place to protect, support and nurture those people until they are back on their feet.
“I want victims to know that you will not be abandoned after coming to us for help, that your care does not stop after a successful conviction.”