‘I’m like a fly trapped in a spider’s web’

Police stand guard at a property in Brixton, south London, on November 24, 2013. Three women enslaved in a house in London for 30 years lived there in some kind of "collective" and shared a political ideology with their captors, police said.

Police stand guard at a property in Brixton, south London, on November 24, 2013. Three women enslaved in a house in London for 30 years lived there in some kind of "collective" and shared a political ideology with their captors, police said.

Published Nov 25, 2013

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London -

The slave held captive by “evil monsters” in a “dark dungeon” of a London council house for more than three decades penned hundreds of desperate letters and poems from captivity.

Rosie, 30, described how she suffered “unspeakable torment” at the hands of a couple who adopted her when she was a baby after her parents died in a fire.

In a series of anguished letters, the terrified woman said: “I’m like a fly trapped in a spider’s web.”

Rosie was allegedly held prisoner almost her entire life along with a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 69-year-old Malaysian woman until they were rescued from a flat in Brixton, South London, last month.

The couple accused of keeping the women prisoner - an Indian man and his Tanzanian wife, both 67 - were said last night to be leaders of a radical Marxist group based in Brixton which collapsed in the 1970s and met the older victims through a “shared political ideology”.

The male suspect was known to police having being arrested in the 1970s, prompting questions about whether police missed opportunities to rescue the brainwashed women, who were regularly beaten.

On Sunday night officers were searching 13 addresses around London, as it was revealed that the couple moved frequently to avoid detection.

The disclosures came as an astonishing series of heart-rending letters and photographs of the youngest victim emerged, in which she told of her despair at being held prisoner.

Starved of love, the victim sent letters and 220 poems to Marius Feneck, a neighbour she fixated on, telling him how she was locked up by “evil and racist” monsters.

She said: “I want you to know the truth. These monsters here are absolutely evil and racist.

“I begged them that horrible night not to tear us apart, but they said they’d HARM YOU if I don’t promise to stay away from you... and then they imprisoned me here, locking all the doors and windows.

“I daren’t try anything because I know they’ll do something evil to you if I do... So I’m like a fly trapped in a spider’s web...

“I apologise to you from the bottom of my heart for the evil actions of these crooks who dare to call themselves my “relatives”. I HATE them!”

She goes on: “I suffer unspeakable torment, yet every bit is worth it, to keep my beloved safe.

“I will surely die if anything happened to you. I would gladly stay in this evil monsters” dark dungeon for the rest of my life - hey I would gladly give up my life (I call it life, but it’s not, it’s only existence... your ever loyal dragon Rosie.”

She also posted dozens of photographs of herself to him, which reveal the cramped, sparsely furnished flat that was her home.

In one shot, she is seen cradling a Father Christmas cuddly toy in a photograph she referred to “Redhead Rosie” with her “baby”.

In another she is sitting on a plastic chair, resting her aching feet after hours of carrying out household chores. She wrote: “I have to rest my legs a lot, they hurt! My ankles swell up, and my toes start cramping up.”

Feneck, 26, a welding student, said he received knitted gifts which were sprayed with strong perfume, and birthday cards. “One day I was speaking to Rosie and she told me she had come to Britain after her parents died in a fire and the people she was living with had adopted her but she didn’t say where she came from originally,” he said.

“She began sending me photos of herself. They were signed darling love Red Head Rosie or Writer Rosie. She said things like she loved me and we were meant to be together.”

He said the other women were frightened to tell him their names. “I spoke to them once or twice a year when I was passing,” he said. “They would never volunteer names. If you asked they would change the subject.”

Feneck’s girlfriend, Rachael Price, 25, said she felt threatened when the girl began sending her abusive letters after she moved in with him.

Price said: “I felt quite disturbed, but I didn’t go to the police because I thought she had problems so I would just leave it.”

On Sunday night pressure was growing on Lambeth Council after it emerged that Rosie had first come to the attention of the social services 15 years ago.

A senior Lambeth councillor, who did not wish to be named, said her adoptive parents were reported to the police because Rosie, who was then 15, was not going to school. The councillor said: “The police passed the complaint to social services but they said they weren’t prepared to take any action.”

Another senior councillor said Lambeth’s social services, education and housing departments had all had contact with the household. On Sunday night Lambeth Council refused to comment.

A man and woman, both 67, were arrested last Thursday but released on bail after being questioned over false imprisonment and immigration offences.

On Sunday night Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said tackling modern slavery in Britain was a “personal priority”.

She said: “It is all around us, hidden in plain sight. Something most of us thought consigned to history books, belonging to a different century, is a shameful and shocking presence in modern Britain.”

Daily Mail

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