Melbourne husband and wife showed ‘absence of humanity’ towards slave
A Melbourne couple who kept a slave for eight years in their home until she was found close to death showed an ‘absence of humanity’, a court has heard.
A Melbourne couple who enslaved a woman for eight years until she was discovered close to death and weighing 40kg showed an “absence of humanity”, a court has heard.
Kumuthini Kannan and husband Kandasamy were found guilty by a jury of intentionally possessing the woman as a slave and exercising the right of ownership over a slave between 2007 and 2015 in their Mount Waverley home.
The enslaved woman’s condition was uncovered when she was found shivering in a pool of urine, weighing 40kg, with a urinary tract infection and undiagnosed diabetes in July 2015.
She was forced to cook, clean and care for the couple’s three children for years for just $3.39 per day after her 30-day tourist visa expired in 2007, the Supreme Court of Victoria was told.
At a pre-sentence hearing for the pair on Wednesday, Justice John Champion probed whether the slave-keeping couple felt any sense of “regret or sorrow” for the victim’s condition.
“It seems to me there’s a fairly remarkable absence of humanity,” the judge said of their attitude.
It stood in stark contrast to references describing the husband and wife as charitable and committed members of the community, Justice Champion said.
He said the pair would have been aware of her deteriorating condition and was “probably days away from dying”.
“There’s never been a sense of ‘we’re really sorry about that’ … in fact it appears the opposite has been conveyed,” the judge told the court.
During the lengthy trial the victim claimed Mrs Kannan beat her with a frozen chicken, threw hot tea on her, cut her with a knife and pushed her down a flight of stairs.
The “reluctance” to apologise was tied to the fact that regret could be considered an admission of liability which could impact a potential appeal, the husband’s lawyer John Kelly SC said.
“They are not heartless people. Mr Kannan is not a heartless person,” he argued.
But the lawyer for Mrs Kannan said his client was sorry for the condition the victim was in but did not take responsibility for how she came to be in that position.
“She did not feel able to write a letter of apology,” barrister Dr Gideon Boas told the court.
But lawyers for the couple disputed the victim’s claims she was mistreated and beaten because there was a lack of evidence.
The woman worked for the Kannans on two previous occasions before she was enslaved on her third visit in 2007. She overstayed her month-long visa.
Prosecutor Richard Maidment QC said the couple knew she was going to overstay the visa and it was the “last roll of the dice” for the couple to get her into the country.
He said the couple misled authorities about the role of the victim and were more concerned to “protect themselves”.
“They put themselves well ahead of her despite the fact she was recovering in hospital,” Mr Maidment said.
The wife had her bail revoked while her husband was allowed to return to the community to help care for the couple’s children.
“I am extremely angry,” Justice Champion said of the situation.
The couple will be sentenced in July.