It is alleged that an Indian woman was kept as a slave for eight years by a Melbourne couple.
The jury was told that this woman was a “tried and tested” good worker.
She was expected to be on call all hours of the day.
The Indian woman came to Australia from her home in Tamil Nadu first in 2004.
She stayed for two six-month stints before returning on a one-month tourist visa in July 2007.
The jury was told that the couple lied to her about overseas holidays and part-time work.
Once they got her into Australia, this Melbourne couple had no intention of letting her leave.
The Melbourne couple, known as KK and KK, is now on trial in Victoria’s Supreme Court.
Prosecutor Richard Maidment QC revealed that the couple’s payments to the woman amounted to just $3.39 a day.
This was in exchange for childcare, washing, cleaning and preparing meals.
“She was known to be a person who worked hard and would tolerate being at their beck and call 24/7 during the period she was with them. It doesn’t take much to compare that with what one might expect … to have to pay for a live-in housekeeper and childminder.”
The couple have pleaded not guilty to intentionally possessing the woman as a slave.
It was also revealed that this woman had four children and no formal education.
She had hoped to earn money in Australia to help support her family in India, Maidment said.
Maidment further added that the couple put controls and fundamentally deprived the woman of her rights and freedoms.
It is alleged that the couple even used to throw boiling water and tea at her and she was also hit with frozen chicken.
The Indian woman said through a translator:
“She will take a chicken, frozen chicken, and hit (it) on my head. She’ll be drinking and then she will throw it on my face. When it’s bubbling, she will put it on my leg. Then I would get big boils there and she won’t look at it.”
The woman was discovered by authorities in 2015 when she had to be taken to hospital.
The trial continues.
