In an exclusive interview with BBC London's home affairs
correspondent Nick Beake on Wednesday, December 9, the
Nigerian man held as slave for 25 years, Ofonime Sunday
Inuk revealed that he reported his captors (Dr Edet and his
wife) 15 years ago (2004) only for police to say they could
not help him as it was a "family matter,"
Now, the force say it was "really regrettable" it had missed
earlier opportunities to help Mr Inuk.
Det Chief Inspector, Phil Brewer of the Met Police trafficking
and kidnapping unit said:
"It's really regrettable that that happened."
He said the Met now worked with many organisations and
local authorities to help prevent similar scenarios occurring
where "people are not listened to or not believed."
Inuk, who is now 40 said:
"I was so happy, thinking it would change my life, but I
was just a person's property," he told Nick Beake.
"I wanted to commit suicide, I couldn't bear it."
After 15 years he reported his intolerable situation to the
police.
"They didn't help me"
"They told me that if I wanted to report them [his captors]
they would have to come to the house. The Edets would
have turned me out and I would have got myself in trouble."
When he told the police the Edets had confiscated his
passport, he said:
"They told me there was nothing they could do" because
it was a "family matter".
He was encouraged to seek help from the police a second
time in 2013 after hearing about a slavery case on the radio
and Met detectives finally helped him to escape nine years
after he first contacted them.
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