A United Nations decide who compelled a younger lady to work as a slave whereas she studied for a PhD in regulation on the College of Oxford has been jailed for greater than six years.
Lydia Mugambe, 50, was discovered to have taken ‘benefit of her standing’ over the Ugandan lady within the ‘most egregious manner’.
Mugambe, who can also be a Excessive Court docket decide in Uganda, stopped the girl holding down regular employment and compelled her to work as her maid and supply childcare.
Following her convictions, bodycam footage launched by the police confirmed Mugambe showing shocked when she was arrested underneath the Trendy Slavery Act.
She instructed one officer: ‘I’m a decide in my nation, I even have immunity. I’m not a legal.’
Mugambe was discovered responsible in March of conspiring to facilitate the fee of a breach of UK immigration regulation, facilitating journey with a view to exploitation, forcing somebody to work, and conspiracy to intimidate a witness after a trial at Oxford Crown Court docket.
She was jailed for six years and 4 months on the identical court docket at this time.
Caroline Haughey KC, prosecuting, instructed jurors in the course of the trial that Mugambe exploited her sufferer by benefiting from her lack of expertise about employment rights and deceptive her about why she got here to the UK.
Jurors agreed that Mugambe conspired with Ugandan deputy excessive commissioner John Leonard Mugerwa to deliver the younger lady to the UK.
Prosecutors stated they took half in a ‘very dishonest’ trade-off, wherein Mr Mugerwa organized for the Ugandan Excessive Fee to sponsor the girl’s entrance into the UK in change for Mugambe making an attempt to talk to a decide who was in control of authorized motion wherein Mr Mugerwa was named.
Jurors additionally accepted that the defendant conspired to intimidate the girl to have her withdraw her assist for the prosecution, or the costs in opposition to her to be dropped.
The cost stated Mugambe contacted a pastor to help in making contact with the younger Ugandan lady, organized for members of the girl’s household to be contacted so they might persuade her to drop the case, and organized for an electronic mail to be despatched on to her.
Mugambe denied forcing the younger lady to do family chores and stated she ‘at all times’ handled her with love, care and endurance.
The younger lady Mugambe tricked into coming to the UK, who can’t be named for authorized causes, instructed the court docket beforehand she felt ‘lonely’ and ‘caught’ after her working hours had been restricted.
In keeping with her UN profile web page, Mugambe was appointed to the physique’s judicial roster in Might 2023, three months after police had been known as to her handle in Oxfordshire.
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