THE JURY in the trial in England of seven members of an Irish Traveller family, charged with holding people in servitude and forced labour, has been told to reach majority verdicts, if necessary.
The nine women and three men have been deliberating at Luton Crown Court since Tuesday of last week on their verdicts following a 13-week trial.
The seven Travellers were arrested and later charged after a high-profile raid by several hundred police officers at a caravan site at Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire on September 11th, 2011.
The accused are: Tommy Connors snr; his sons, Johnny, aged 28, Tommy jnr, aged 26, Patrick, aged 20, and James, aged 24; his daughter, Josie and her husband, James John, aged 34.
Addressing the jury yesterday, Judge Michael Kay told them: “I have called you back because the time has come to say that I will accept majority verdicts.” He went on: “I am going to ask you to continue your deliberations and [ask you] still to try to reach verdicts on which you are all in agreement.”
Eleven men who had stayed, one for up to 15 years, at caravan sites occupied by the Connors gave evidence, though they cannot be named by order of the judge.
The jury, said the judge, must decide between the differing versions of events put forward by the prosecution and the legal teams for the Connors.
Some of the defence teams had argued that the Connors had been subjected to a police investigation that was motivated by racism.
The men were recruited at homeless centres, unemployment exchanges, or soup-kitchens and promised accommodation and pay to work for the Connors.
However, the defence teams for the accused denied that the men had been held in servitude, arguing that it was “a hard bargain” between two groups of people on the edge of society.
The prosecutions were taken on the back of new legislation outlawing slavery, servitude and forced labour, which was passed by parliament in 2009 but which came into law a year later.
The jury will continue its deliberations today.
