A woman has been found guilty of keeping another woman with learning difficulties captive for more than 20 years and using her as a slave.
Mandy Wixon, 56, made the vulnerable woman, who the BBC is calling K, clean her home in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, and force-fed her bleach and cleaning products.
Wixon was convicted of false imprisonment, two charges of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, and four charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The jury at Gloucester Crown Court acquitted her of one assault charge.
Judge Ian Lawrie said there was a “Dickensian quality” to the story after the woman had left her own “dysfunctional family”.
The BBC has only become able to report details of the case at this stage due to reporting restrictions.
The court heard that K was born into a troubled family and, when she was about 16 in 1996, she was given to Wixon, who had a loose connection to her family.
Now in her 40s, K was found by police on 15 March 2021 after one of Wixon’s sons, raised concerns for K’s welfare.
The court heard K was regularly beaten and also hit with a broom handle – knocking out her teeth.
Washing-up liquid would be squirted down her throat, bleach splashed on her face, and she had her head repeatedly shaved against her will, the court heard.
Officers described K’s bedroom as looking like a “prison cell”, with other bedrooms untidy and dirty.
She told police: “I don’t want to be here. I don’t feel safe. Mandy hits me all the time. I don’t like it.”
Det Sgt Alex Pockett said when police found K, she was “scared”.
“When the police arrived, the victim had her head held down, it was clear she was extremely scared.
“She had short hair, she looked extremely malnourished, she was in scruffy clothes,” Pockett added.