Peter Swailes: No sentence increase over shed slavery case

Judges said the sentence was not unduly lenient given the basis of Swailes' guilty plea

The suspended jail term given to a modern slave owner whose victim lived in a squalid shed will not be increased, a court has ruled.

Peter Swailes Jr, 56, was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court to a nine-month prison term, suspended for 18 months.

The charity City Hearts, which is caring for Swailes' victim, asked the Attorney General's Office to review the term under the unduly lenient scheme.

However, the Court of Appeal has ruled the term was not unduly lenient.

Solicitor General Alex Chalk QC referred the case for appeal claiming the sentence should not have been suspended.

But Lord Justice Holroyde, at the Court of Appeal, said judges had concluded that neither the length of the term, nor the suspension, was unduly lenient, given the basis of Swailes' guilty plea.

He said the case was "complicated and difficult".

The vulnerable victim, who had a "very low" IQ of 59, was used and exploited for 40 years by Swailes' father, who was his "boss" at the various "accommodations" over the years, judges heard.

His father, also called Peter Swailes, 81, died last year while awaiting trial after being accused of modern slavery offences.

He was accused of approaching the victim when he was aged about 18 and inviting him to work with him doing various jobs.

In October 2018 the man was discovered by police living in a rotting, leaky shed near Carlisle, without heating, lighting or flooring.

Swailes accepted that, from "time to time", his father would contact him and arrange for the victim to undertake work with him, and that, "on occasion", he paid him less than his minimum entitlement.

The case came after a three-year investigation by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, supported by Cumbria Police and the National Crime Agency.

The Crown accepted the defendant's guilty plea on the first day of his trial in January on the basis he was unaware of the victim's living conditions.

The victim, in his 60s, now lives in supported accommodation outside Cumbria and has been helped by City Hearts, a charity providing long-term support to survivors of modern slavery.

The shed the man was kept in had no lights or heating