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Man 'forced to work without pay' for 13 years | |
(36 minutes later) | |
A father and son forced a vulnerable man to work unpaid at their farm every day for 13 years, a court has heard. | |
Darell Simester, 44, had to work 15-hour-days living in squalid conditions at Cariad Farm at Peterstone near Newport, heard a jury. | |
His family struggled to recognise him when they tracked him down in a "horrific state" with a chest infection, a hernia and calloused feet. | |
The trial at Cardiff Crown Court is expected to last up to six weeks. | The trial at Cardiff Crown Court is expected to last up to six weeks. |
Father and son Daniel Doran, 67, and 42-year-old David Daniel Doran deny charges of requiring Mr Simester to perform forced or compulsory labour between 2010 and 2013. | |
The family of Mr Simester, from Kidderminster, had not known of his whereabouts since 2000. | |
'Under menace' | |
John Hipkin QC, prosecuting, said when Mr Simester was eventually tracked down by his worried family in 2013 he was found living in a caravan which had been described by a police officer as "left to rot" and "unfit for human habitation". | |
Mr Simester slept in a rat-infested shed for more than a decade with just his horse manure-stained clothing for bedding - before being moved to a squalid and cold caravan with a broken door, heard Cardiff Crown Court. | |
He was said to have washed himself in an animal's feeding trough, while the broken outdoor toilet he had to use would only flush with a bucket of water and a stick. | |
Mr Hipkin said: "Darrell Simester was a man of timid disposition who for 13 years was forced to work against his will and under menace. | |
He added: "Darrell Simester regarded the defendants as his bosses. He worked (virtually) every day for 13 years. | |
"His working day would start at 7am and and he would finish between 9pm and 10pm. He did not receive any pay at all. | |
"You (the jury) will have to decide whether Mr Simester remained at the farm as a volunteer because he preferred life there, or whether he was coerced to stay while under some form of threat." | |
The trial continues. |