In a statement released after the verdict was read, the victim, now in her 40s, recounted decades of fear, control, and abuse. “For 25 years, I lived in terror. I was treated as if my life, my freedom, and my voice had no value,” she stated, adding that she continues to suffer from trauma and nightmares. The woman also said that she is now living with a family that offers her support and security, but emphasized that “nothing can return the 25 years that I lost.”
The court heard that the victim, who has learning difficulties, was only 16 years old when she moved into Amanda Wixon’s house in Tewkesbury in the mid-1990s, for what was supposed to be just a weekend stay. She ended up staying there until she was discovered by the police in 2021. During this period, she was beaten, fed leftovers, prevented from leaving the house, and forced to do labor, while her social benefits were deposited into the attacker’s account.
The case has raised strong criticism of the social services, with foster family members and neighbors questioning how it was possible for the victim to “disappear from society” for so many years. Witnesses stated that they repeatedly alerted authorities without any action being taken. The Public Prosecutions Office emphasized that there were no medical or dental records for the woman for nearly two decades, nor any consistent institutional follow-up since the late 1990s.
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The judge considered that the case had a “Dickensian quality,” while organizations supporting victims of modern-day slavery called for greater training of professionals to identify situations of domestic servitude. The Gloucestershire County Council stated that it was unaware of the situation until the start of the police investigation in 2021 and announced the opening of an internal review to determine failures and prevent similar cases in the future.
