A woman has been found guilty of keeping a vulnerable woman as a 'house slave' for more than 25 years. Amanda Wixon, 56, a mother of ten, forced the victim, who has learning difficulties, to live in squalid conditions and subjected her to regular beatings and abuse.
Gloucester Crown Court heard that the victim was 16 when she moved into Wixon's home in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, in 1995, and remained there until 2021. She was beaten with a broom handle, had washing-up liquid squirted down her throat, bleach splashed on her face, and her head repeatedly shaved against her will.
Wixon limited the woman's food, forcing her to live off scraps, forbade her from leaving the house, and compelled her to wash in secret at night. The family home was overcrowded and in a squalid condition, with mould on the walls and rubbish in the garden. The victim's bedroom was described by police as looking like a 'prison cell'.
Wixon denied charges of false imprisonment, requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. A jury acquitted her of one assault charge but found her guilty of the others. She was released on conditional bail and will be sentenced on March 12.
Prosecutor Sam Jones told the jury that the victim 'disappeared into a black hole' with no medical or dental records for 20 years, and no contact with social services since the late 1990s. Judge Ian Lawrie KC said there was a 'Dickensian quality' to the case.
