Mother of 10 jailed for keeping woman as ‘slave’ for 25 years

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A UK judge on Thursday jailed for 13 years a mother-of-10 who forced a vulnerable woman to work as a “house slave” for more than two decades.

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Amanda Wixon subjected the woman, who was a teenager when the ordeal began, to more than 25 years of abuse at her squalid home in Gloucestershire, western England.

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The 56-year-old forced the victim, who has a learning disability, to do manual labour, regularly assaulted her and deprived her of food and healthcare, it emerged during an earlier 13-day trial.

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Gloucester Crown Court heard Wixon would regularly beat the victim, who is now in her 40s, including with a broom handle, knocking out her teeth on one occasion.

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Wixon – referred to as “The Witch” by her tormented victim – would also squirt washing-up liquid down her throat, splash bleach on her face and repeatedly shaved her head against her will.

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The vulnerable woman had first moved into the home in 1995, remaining there until 2021.

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Wixon was convicted in January of false imprisonment and modern-day slavery offences, including two counts of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour and charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

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“The gravity of your offending is so serious that I am imposing a significant period of custody,” judge Ian Lawrie said as he handed down Thursday’s sentence.

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He added Wixon was in “permanent denial” about the impact of her actions.

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During the trial, the court heard Wixon knew the victim through family connections and had spent time with her and her relatives before taking responsibility for the woman in 1996.

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It emerged social services had been involved with the Wixon family in the late 1990s, but there were no records of any other contact with any agency since then.

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The victim now lives with a foster family and attends college, but has little comprehension of the abuse she suffered, her anonymous foster mother said Thursday.

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She added the victim was terrified of Wixon and broke down in hysterics when she accidentally bumped into her in a supermarket recently.

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“She called her The Witch,” the foster mother told Britain’s Press Association domestic news agency.

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“She’s really scared of her.”

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The foster mother added the victim was “going through therapy” with “a good psychologist”.

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“I think she will be OK in time. But it’s just going to take time.”

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