Coventry family kept two vulnerable women locked up as slaves and repeatedly broke their bones

[dutchman]

A Coventry family kept a vulnerable mother and daughter prisoners as they forced them to work as domestic slaves, feeding them on just dry pasta and subjecting them to savage beatings – until they were rescued with multiple fractures



And despite being in a wheelchair, matriarch Jean Kelly was able to swing a baseball bat called Bob at one of the women whose screams could be heard on recordings Kelly’s daughter made.

But she denied two charges of conspiracy to imprison the mother and daughter and offences under the Modern Slavery Act of requiring the two victims to perform forced or compulsory labour.

Kelly (53) of Ferrers Close, Tile Hill, Coventry, also pleaded not guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on the two victims, as well as assaulting them on other occasions.

Following a trial at Warwick Crown Court, she was found guilty of all the charges, with the exception of taking part in inflicting grievous bodily harm on the daughter.

Michael Kelly (43) of the same address, Hitt (25) and Healy (29) both of Vincent Wyles House, Wyken, Coventry, had all admitted assaulting and falsely imprisoning the mother.

The two men also pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on her and her daughter with intent, and Hitt admitted imprisoning the daughter, keeping her in a state of forced labour.

Following Kelly’s conviction, she was remanded in custody and will be sentenced with the other three next month.

[dutchman]

The "sadistic" Coventry slave family jailed for almost 50 years



A Coventry family who imprisoned a vulnerable mother and her daughter and used them as domestic slaves have been jailed for nearly 50 years.

The two victims were subjected to “sadistic” violence during their ordeal and were forced to eat dry pasta or scrape leftovers from the bin as they were so hungry.

The two women were held captive at a flat in Tile Hill, and another in Wyken, for five weeks in January and February 2016 before an anonymous tip-off led to them being rescued by police.

Jean Kelly was the “ringleader” of the evil family who pulled the strings despite being confined to a wheelchair.

She still, however, carried out some of the attacks using a baseball bat that she had named ‘Bob’.

Kelly, 54, of Ferrers Close, Tile Hill, was handed a 14-year sentence having been found guilty of two charges of conspiracy to imprison the mother and daughter, offences under the Modern Slavery Act of requiring the two victims to perform forced or compulsory labour, and inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on the mother.

She was sentenced at Warwick Crown Court – appearing via video link from HMP Peterborough – along with her husband Michael Kelly, her daughter Anastasia Hitt and her partner Ian Healy.

They all admitted assaulting and falsely imprisoning the mother, with the two men also pleading guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on her and her daughter with intent, and Hitt admitted imprisoning the daughter, keeping her in a state of forced labour.

Michael Kelly, 43, also of Ferrers Close, was jailed for 14 years, as was Healy, 28, of Vincent Wyles House, Wyken,

Hitt, 25, also of Vincent Wyles House, was sentenced to four years and six months behind bars.

Jailing Kelly, Judge Anthony Potter told her the victims fell foul of a “campaign of abuse that you orchestrated” and he described her as the “ringleader”.

He said she treated them in an “utterly barbaric manner” along with her family members and added: “The fact that human beings in Great Britain can be treated like this by other members of a civilised community is profoundly shocking.”

When he passed sentence on the other three, Judge Potter told them that “all three of you played an active part” in the “barbaric” treatment of the two victims.

He added: “You did not seek to empathise with them. You sought only to exploit them for your own sordid ends.”

Judge Potter said that during the trial Michael Kelly was referred to as a “physical enforcer” and that’s certainly how his wife viewed him.

He told Healy that although he was controlled by the instructions of Jean Kelly, and to a lesser extent Anastasia Hitt, he showed an “enthusiasm” to his role, while he said Hitt was “enthusiastic” about keeping the younger victim imprisoned at her flat as she was a “direct beneficiary” of what was her basically her being used as “free 24-hour childcare”.