Rooney traveller family face sentencing after enslaving homeless and disabled people

Eleven members of a Lincolnshire traveller family dubbed the biggest slavery gang in Britain face sentencing in court today.

The infamous Rooney family, who were based on a travellers site in Lincoln, subjected 18 victims to squalid living conditions and made them work for little or no pay.

Victims included disabled and homeless people, some of whom were dependant on drugs or alcohol, and one person had been working for the family for 26 years.

Pictures and videos released previously revealed the disgusting living conditions forced upon the group.

Victims have in the weeks after the case was brought to Nottingham Crown Court spoken out about their ordeal and how they were treated by the family.

One victim described how they watched another worker being beaten by a member of the Rooney family.

For their labour, they were made to live next to dog kennels, were often given the family’s leftovers as food and were ‘paid’ in tobacco and alcohol, which served to exacerbate their additions.

They would go to the toilet in nearby woods and fields.

The home of Patrick Rooney

All the while, the Rooney were living a life of luxury, taking extravagant holidays to Barbados, Australia, Egypt and Mexico, purchasing high performance BMWs, spa days and cosmetic surgery.

Eleven members of the family are expected to be sentenced today after being found guilty of a number of offences including conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation and unlawful wounding. 

They were found guilty of the following offences:

• John Rooney, 31, of Drinsey Nook, Sheffield Road, Saxilby: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, conspiracy to defraud, fraud by false representation, theft (two counts).
• Patrick Rooney, 31, of Drinsey Nook, Sheffield Road, Saxilby: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, fraud by abuse of position, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, theft (two counts).
• Bridget Rooney, 55, of Drinsey Nook, Sheffield Road, Saxilby: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour
• Martin Rooney, 35, of Sainfoin Farm, Gatemoor Lane, Beaconsfield: conspiracy to defraud, converting criminal property (two counts)
• Martin Rooney, 57, of Drinsey Nook, Sheffield Road, Saxilby: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, unlawful wounding.
• Martin Rooney, 23, of Drinsey Nook, Sheffield Road, Saxilby: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, assault occasioning actual bodily harm
• Patrick Rooney, 54, of Sainfoin Farm, Gatemoor Lane, Beaconsfield: converting criminal property
• John Rooney, 53, of Chantry Croft, Pontefract: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour (two counts).
• Peter Doran, 36, of Washingborough Road, Lincoln: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.
• Gerard Rooney, 46, of Washingborough Road, Lincoln: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.
• Lawrence Rooney, 47, currently in prison: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.

The following two individuals were found not guilty of these counts:

• Eileen Rooney, 32, of Drinsey Nook, Sheffield Road, Saxilby: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, theft, fraud.
• Nora Rooney, 31, of Drinsey Nook, Sheffield Road, Saxilby: conspiracy to require a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.