A United Nations judge has been jailed for six years and four months for forcing a woman to work as a domestic slave.<\/p>\n
Lydia Mugambe, 50, was studying for a PhD in law at the University of Oxford when police discovered she had a young Ugandan woman at her home carrying out unpaid work as a maid and nanny.<\/p>\n
Mugambe, who is also a High Court judge in Uganda, was jailed at Oxford Crown Court on Friday after she was found guilty of modern day slavery offences in March.<\/p>\n
In sentencing, Judge David Foxton told the defendant she \u201cshowed absolutely no remorse\u201d for her actions and she had looked to \u201cforcibly blame\u201d the victim for what happened.<\/p>\n
Mugambe fraudulently arranged a visa for the woman but it stipulated she would be paid to work as a private servant at the diplomatic residence of John Mugerwa, Uganda\u2019s former deputy high commissioner based at the country\u2019s embassy in London.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said Mr Mugerwa sponsored the victim\u2019s visa knowing she would actually work in servitude for Mugambe.<\/p>\n
In return, Mugambe would provide him assistance in relation to a separate court case in Uganda in which he was a defendant, the court was told.<\/p>\n
The trial heard Mugambe paid for the victim\u2019s flight and picked her up from the airport \u2013 but the young woman then became a slave at the judge\u2019s home in Kidlington, Oxfordshire.<\/p>\n
Mr Foxton described it as a \u201cvery sad case\u201d as he outlined Mugambe\u2019s legal accomplishments, including her work in the protection of human rights.<\/p>\n
In a written statement, read to the court by prosecutor Caroline Haughey KC, the victim described living in \u201calmost constant fear\u201d due to Mugambe\u2019s powerful standing in Uganda.<\/p>\n
The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she \u201ccan\u2019t go back to Uganda\u201d due to fear of what may happen to her and added that she may never see her mother again.<\/p>\n
Ms Haughey said Mugambe exploited her victim by taking advantage of her lack of knowledge about employment rights and misleading her about why she came to the UK.<\/p>\n
She said there was a \u201cclear and significant imbalance of power within the relationship\u201d between Mugambe and her victim.<\/p>\n
The Crown Prosecution Service authorised police to charge Mr Mugerwa with conspiracy but he had diplomatic immunity, which the Ugandan Government did not waive.<\/p>\n
Mugambe had denied forcing the young Ugandan woman to do household chores and said she \u201calways\u201d treated her with love, care and patience.<\/p>\n
Ch Supt Ben Clark, of Thames Valley Police, said there was \u201cno doubt\u201d that Mugambe had known she was committing offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cModern slavery is an under reported crime and I hope that the bravery of the victim in this case encourages other victims of modern slavery to come forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A University of Oxford spokesperson said the institution was \u201cappalled\u201d by its student\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe university is now commencing its own disciplinary process, which has the power to remove students convicted of serious criminal offences,\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A United Nations judge has been jailed for six years and four months for forcing a woman to work as a domestic slave. Lydia Mugambe, 50, was studying for a PhD in law at the University of Oxford when police discovered she had a young Ugandan woman at her home carrying out unpaid work as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114514\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}