"[3] In April 2011, a man complained to Bedfordshire Police that he had been "enslaved, frequently beaten and threatened with more violence after being offered work outside a job centre.
[5] The allegations led to the launch of the operation, which began with several months of undercover observation and covert intelligence gathering, involving the Serious Organised Crime Agency's Human Trafficking Centre.
[4][6] Police concluded the site was "the hub of a multi-million pound trafficking operation that spans beyond the UK", and that some of the men may have been moved to Scandinavia and other parts of Europe to work.
One of the nine accused the police of heavy-handed tactics, saying he had lived on the caravan site for several years working as a paver for £50 a day, claiming many of the other men were similarly paid.
[1][8] They were being housed temporarily at a British Red Cross rest centre set up to provide shelter for them while alternative accommodation was found and other necessary arrangements made.
A Red Cross spokesperson said: "Our emergency response volunteers are offering emotional support and giving the men any practical help they need, such as clothing and hygiene kits.
[16] A spokesman CPS Thames and Chiltern Complex Casework Unit explained: "These charges relate to four victims who allege they have been held against their will and forced to live and work like slaves.
At a subsequent hearing, on 22 September, she was remanded on bail until 5 December 2011, on condition that she remained at home and only left to give birth at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury.
[18] Speaking on 12 September Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Sean O'Neil of BHMCU said: "I am confident that while the investigation is in its early stages this is a family-run 'business' and is an organised crime group that has been broken up by the Netwing operation.
[23] Andrew Selous, MP for South West Bedfordshire, told the House of Commons: "Following this weekend's utterly despicable revelations of the way in which twenty-four of my constituents have been kept as slaves, some for fifteen years, I'd like to commend the robust action of Bedfordshire Police in bringing this to light", and asked the Government to "pay particular attention to the issue of internal trafficking within the UK, given that seventeen of these twenty-four slaves were British citizens."
[31][32] In a court case in May 1999 one John Williams described how the previous year he was taken from London to Basildon, forced to work all day and then locked in a stable at Crays Hill.