‘Conditioned to fear him’: Man charged with enslaving family for half a decade

A man charged with enslaving his family to work on their farm acted like an “absolute ruler … unrestrained by law” and used guns and violence to force them into servitude for five years, a court has heard.

A father charged with enslaving his wife and six young kids to work on their rural farm used guns and violence to force his family into servitude for half a decade, a court has heard.

The man who acted like an “absolute ruler … unrestrained by law” has been accused of subjecting his family to a life lived “under tyranny”, a Supreme Court trial was told on Monday.

The man has been accused of threatening his family with firearms.

He’s been accused of threatening his loved ones with firearms, driving at them in an all-terrain vehicle, hitting them with his hands and beating them with irrigation hosing, strips of vines and parts of golf clubs.

The alleged abuse was used as a weapon to force his family to work on their farm, outside of Mildura, with the man facing trial on 12 charges, including seven counts of causing his wife and six kids aged under 18 to remain in servitude between 2016 and 2021.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, stands accused of treating his loved ones like slaves to dig irrigation channels, harvest produce, pack grapes, tend to animals and build fences.

“The accused dominated their lives through physical violence, through threats and through intimidation,” said Patrick Doyle SC, for the prosecution.

“He not only abused his physical power over them but he was psychologically and emotionally abusive as well, he used insults to belittle, he attempted to make them feel powerless and for years he succeeded.”

The man stands accused of treating his loved ones like slaves to tend to the farm. Picture: Stock image

Mr Doyle suggested to the jury that the accused enslaver controlled his family’s lives in ways other than violence, by beating his kids if they made friends at school, banning his wife from keeping in touch with her family overseas, and stopping them from leaving the house without permission.

These restrictions meant they “never got close enough to anyone to tell them how they were living”, until one of his daughters went to police in August, 2021.

The court heard the violence started in NSW where the family lived prior to 2016, where the man’s wife once hid in her neighbour’s garden telling police her husband “threatened to finish her off”.

“The prosecution case is by the time the family moved to (Victoria) they were conditioned to be subordinate to the will of the accused, they were conditioned to obey him, they were conditioned to fear him,” Mr Doyle told the court.

The prosecution alleges the man’s family were conditioned to fear him. Picture: istock

The prosecutor said the case was about a “family living under tyranny” – a word derived from Ancient Greek, which “refers to a ruler … an absolute ruler, one unrestrained by law”.

“When they lived with the accused it must have felt to his wife and her six children that they were living under tyranny in every sense of the word,” he said.

He asked the jury to question if they were in the position of the alleged victims, “would you consider yourself free to stop working or to leave the farm?”

The seven family members are due to give evidence in the trial, before Justice John Champion.

Prosecutors will further outline claims of abuse allegedly committed by the father in NSW on Tuesday, with the accused man’s defence team, led by barrister Alexander Patton, then getting a chance to respond.