‘You will rot’: Slave accuses captor of intimidation plot

A grandmother kept as a slave in a Mount Waverley home claims her captor threatened she would “rot in this country until you die” if she testified against her in court.

A grandmother kept as a suburban slave for almost a decade claims her captor threatened she would “rot in this country until you die” if she gave evidence.

Kumuthini Kannan, 54, has been committed to stand trial on charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and intimidating a witness after she allegedly rang the elderly grandmother posing as a Tamil court interpreter.

It’s alleged Kannan, who was about to face trial for keeping the woman as a slave in her Mount Waverley home from 2007 to 2015, called from a payphone at Forest Hill Chase shopping centre and told her “the court will not believe what you say”.

Kumuthini Kannan. Picture: NCA NewsWire

“Don’t provide testimony to the court. or they will never send you back (to India),” she’s accused of saying on February 16, 2020.

“You will rot in this country until you die.”

The elderly woman said she replied that she trusted police and lawyers, but was told they were “in it only for the money and to make names for themselves”, according to court papers.

It’s alleged Kannan told the woman to tell the judge she couldn’t remember what happened, that she was suffering from mental illness.

“The judge may do something for you if you fall at his feet.”

“There’s no one other than Kumathini that would talk to me like that, no-one else – it was Kumathini,” the woman told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court through an interpreter.

Police seized CCTV of a person they say was Kannan on the pay phone.

The elderly woman believed the intent of the call was to “confuse me” and said when she hung up the phone she was “overwhelmed with feelings – I was screaming”.

Kannan pleaded not guilty and was committed to the County Court, where she will face a directions hearing on November 29.