Seven members of Rooney traveller family lodge appeal bid

Bridget and Martin Rooney, their sons John, Patrick and Martin Junior and a cousin Gerry Rooney all appeared at the High Court via video link. Lawrence Rooney waived his right to attend.

Members of a traveller family who kept slaves in squalid conditions are applying to appeal against their convictions and sentences.

Nine members of the Rooney family, headed by Martin Rooney Senior, 56, were jailed in September 2017.

One of their victims, whose ordeal spanned more than 25 years, was made to dig his own grave.

Five members appeared at the Court of Appeal via video link for permission to challenge their convictions.

Rooney Senior, his wife Bridget, 55, and twin sons John and Patrick, both 33, and youngest son Martin Rooney Jnr, 26, are attempting to quash their original verdicts.

Two other members - Lawrence Rooney, 51, and Gerry Rooney, 47 - are trying to appeal against their sentences.

Police said the Rooneys' victims lived in squalor

During their trial, Nottingham Crown Court heard the Rooneys' victims were left without running water or toilet facilities at the Drinsey Nook site in Lincolnshire.

They were kept in squalor, fed on scraps and forced to work for little or no pay, laying driveways for the family business.

In a bid to overturn the decision, the Rooneys' barrister Jason Bartfeld QC claimed the trial judge had misdirected the jury on the definition of the charge they faced.

The crown court judge said forced work could be required by methods including "deception, abuse of power or exploitation of vulnerability".

Mr Bartfeld argued the definition of "free will" and "exploitation".

He told Lord Justice Holroyde, Mrs Justice Andrews and Judge Mark Lucraft QC that, if the workers could have moved on, then the offence of forced labour was not committed.

"If a worker was free to return to the life they had started out with when first recruited, then they have not had their free will overborne such that liability for an offence as serious as this attaches," he said.

A ruling on the appeal applications is expected next year. In total, 11 members of the family were jailed.