Identity of Melbourne couple guilty of keeping slave, who weighed just 40kg, revealed
The identity of a suburban couple who kept a slave in their Melbourne home for eight years can be revealed for the first time.
A Melbourne couple who paid an Indian grandmother $3.39 per day to be at their “beck and call” over eight years has been found guilty of enslaving the woman.
Kumuthini Kannan and her husband Kandasamy were found guilty of intentionally possessing the woman as a slave and exercising the right of ownership of a slave between July 2007 and July 2015.
After deliberating for a day and a half, jurors found the pair guilty on all charges on Friday afternoon.
The enslaved woman, now in her 60s, was paid just $3.39 per day for cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children during the eight years she was trapped in the Kannans’ home.
The names of the couple can finally be revealed after a suppression order on their identity was lifted following the verdict on Friday, despite their lawyers arguing it should be kept secret.
Justice John Champion said “the time had come” for the duo to be publicly identified following the 10-week trial.
Both now face a maximum penalty of 25 years behind bars.
The Indian-born grandmother was at Mr and Ms Kannan’s “beck and call” 24/7 when she was living with them, prosecutor Richard Maidment said.
Their motivation to risk their reputation, jobs and potential prosecution to keep her and harbour her was “crystal clear”, Mr Maidment said.
“They wanted essentially to import a true, tried and tested child carer and domestic servant, knowing that they could pay her next to nothing so that they could continue to live and maintain a five-bedroom home, that they could maintain their lifestyle,” he said.
The victim’s condition was uncovered when she was found shivering in a puddle of urine at the property on July 30, 2015.
Paramedics rushed the emaciated woman to hospital where it was found she weighed 40kg, had a temperature of 28.5C had sepsis and untreated diabetes.
She had moved to Australia in 2007 and was promised she would get paid for doing the household duties and taking care of the couple’s children.
The victim gave more than 30 hours of video evidence which was aired to the jury. Some of it was recorded while she was still in her hospital bed.
The woman said she endured horrific abuse including getting beaten with a frozen chicken, having hot water thrown on her and had lost her teeth.
“She will take a chicken, frozen chicken, and hit on my head and all that,” she told investigators through an interpreter.
The woman said in her evidence she had so many chores to complete she was only able to sleep for an hour every night.
“If I go and sleep then she will come and pour the water on me and then put the light, and she won’t let me sleep,” the victim said.
The enslaved woman was also trapped in the home when the family went on overseas trips and the food cupboard was taped shut, the stove was covered and she was only allowed to use the microwave to cook.
Her family had been in regular contact with the woman until 2012 but that dwindled until her daughter sent an email asking for the couple to send her mother back to India.
In one response Ms Kannan told the woman “get f***ed” and in another: “Tell her to go f*** herself”
The slave’s family contacted authorities in Australia who launched an investigation.
But the lawyer who represented Ms Kannan said jurors shouldn’t trust the victim’s version of events.
“Put simply … she was not honest, she was not trustworthy, she was not reliable,” barrister Gideon Boas told the court.
He said “harsh and exploitative conditions” do not amount to slavery.
Mr Kannan’s lawyer John Kelly SC described the relationship with the slave as one that was comparable to “mother and son”. He said the woman made “no complaint” about the son’s treatment of her.
“The one criticism of him that might be levelled against him is that he needed to be more assertive in the household, that’s about it,” Mr Kelly said of his client.
When the verdict was handed down Ms Kannan gasped, put her head in her hands and clutched onto her husband.
However the pair were granted bail when their lawyers argued there was no one else to care for their three teenage children.
The judge asked why they hadn’t made any preparations ahead of the verdict.
The pair “effectively placed a gun at the court’s head” because of their failure to consider the possibilities, Justice Champion said.
Their bail conditions would be akin to a “lockdown”situation”, Justice Champion said.
Mr and Mrs Kannan will return to face a pre-sentence hearing in June.
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