A woman has been jailed for 13 years after keeping a ‘vulnerable’ woman as a slave in squalid conditions. Mother of 10, Amanda Wixon, 56, from Tewkesbury, was jailed at Gloucester Crown Court.

In January she was found guilty of six charges including compulsory labour, false imprisonment and assault. The court was told how Wixon had taken in her victim, her friend’s daughter, in 1997 and kept her imprisoned until March 2021, when Wixon’s son called the police.

Wixon kept the girl as a slave, regularly beating her, forcing her to look after Wixon’s children and clean the house. Other vile abuse included hitting her with a broom handle, knocking out her teeth.

Officers attended Amanda Wixon’s home in March 2021

Washing-up liquid would be squirted down her throat, bleach splashed on her face, and she had her head repeatedly shaved against her will. The Mirror reports that during the sentencing hearing today, Sam Jones, prosecuting, read a note the victim had written to the court.

The woman, who is not being identified, said: “For 25 years, I lived in fear, control and abuse. I was treated as though my life, my freedom and my voice did not matter.

“Although my abuser has now been found guilty, the trauma and the nightmares are something I still carry with me every day. I am now living with a wonderful family who show me kindness, patience and support.

“Their love is helping me slowly rebuild the life that was taken from me and begin to feel safe again. Nothing can give me back the 25 years I lost.

The bedroom that Amanda Wixon’s victim was kept in -Credit:Gloucestershire Police/PA

“But I hope the court recognises the deep and lasting harm this abuse has caused and delivers a sentence that truly reflects the seriousness of these crimes.”

She was forced to secretly wash at night and eat scraps, with Wixon never allowing her out of the house, the court heard. Wixon’s prisoner was just a 16-year-old secondary school student when she first took her in.

The victim made voice notes about her ordeal on a hidden phone, as Wixon forced her to live in unsanitary conditions. Officers found her now in her 40s, with bruises and no teeth thanks to beatings from Wixon.

She had been forced to sleep in a mouldy and damp bedroom which was compared to a prison cell in court. She appeared timid and unwashed in body worn footage from officers, and she told officers the last time she bathed was over a year ago.

The defendant denied a charge of false imprisonment, two charges of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, and four charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. A jury acquitted her of one assault charge but found her guilty of the others.

Officers discovered Amanda Wixon had kept the victim in her home since 1995, where she remained until 2021

The family home in the Priors Park area of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, shared by Wixon and her children, was described as overcrowded, in a squalid condition, with mould on the walls, plaster hanging off and rubbish in the back garden.

When she was rescued, the woman told police: “I don’t want to be here. I don’t feel safe. Mandy hits me all the time. I don’t like it. I haven’t washed for years. She doesn’t let me.”

The court heard social services were involved with the family in the late 1990s but there were no records of any contact since. “The fact remains that nothing was done by social services,” Mr Jones said.

More in News

FourFourTwo

Looking Back: What did Taunton’s newspapers look like a century ago?

FTW Outdoors

All the latest planning applications submitted to Sutton Council

Sutton and Croydon Guardian

There were no medical records or dental records for the woman, and she had not seen a doctor in two decades. When she was discovered by police, her Body Mass Index was “very close” to being underweight.

She also had scarring to her lips and face and large calluses on her feet and ankles from being constantly on her hands and knees cleaning floors. One neighbour described the woman as “looking like something out of a concentration camp”.

Another saw her looking “skin and bone” with a shaved head and described seeing her being hit with a broom.