A judge tricked an African woman into coming to Britain to work as her unpaid slave while she studied a law PhD at Oxford University, a court heard.
Ugandan High Court judge Lydia Mugambe conspired with deputy High Commissioner John Leonard Mugerwa to bring the woman to the UK to look after her children for free, prosecutors said.She then withheld her passport and if the woman ever needed her identity documents she would have to ‘beg for them,’ Caroline Haughey KC said.
When police first arrested Mugambe she wrongly claimed she had diplomatic immunity, Oxford Crown Court was told.
The 49-year-old is also accused of trying to intimidate her victim into dropping the case by trying to arrange for the woman’s pastor to intervene.
‘That, the Crown say, is Miss Mugambe using the weight of her personal influence and power to try to get her to drop her case,’ Ms Haughey, prosecuting, said.
The alleged victim came to Britain on July 9, 2022, after Mugambe made a ‘very dishonest’ trade-off with Mr Mugerwa to sponsor her entrance to the country, the court heard.
Mugambe offered to speak with a judge presiding over a case in which Mr Mugerwa was named in exchange for him sponsoring the woman as a domestic worker in his household, Ms Haughey said.
‘It was never anyone’s intention that [the woman] would work at the High Commission or for Mr Mugerwa,' Ms Haughey said.
‘Lydia Mugambe and John Leonard Mugerwa conspired together to lie and provide false particulars on a visa sponsorship form about where victim would be working.’
Mr. Mugerwa was not charged with an offence because he has left the jurisdiction, the court heard.
Instead of working for the High Commission, the woman moved into Mugambe’s home in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, and began sleeping in a bunkbed in her daughter’s room, jurors heard.
'Ms Mugambe created a situation where [her alleged victim] was deprived of the opportunity to support herself by preventing her from being able to hold down steady employment or to earn any money unless it was done at the whim or convenience of Ms Mugambe,’ the prosecutor said.
‘This was her intention from the outset when arranging for [the woman] to come to the UK: obtaining someone to make her life easier and at the least possible cost to herself.’
Thames Valley Police received a report that a woman was being held as a slave on February 10, 2023.
They received another call later that day from a member of the public who became concerned about the woman’s welfare after seeing her in a TK Maxx store in Oxford.
Officers who searched the Mugambe family home found the woman’s photo ID hidden inside a book called ‘Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995’ in the judge’s bedroom.
‘We say Lydia Mugambe intended to exploit and successfully exploited the alleged victim - depriving her the freedoms you and I take for granted,’ Ms Haughey said.
‘She never intended to pay her properly. She never intended to treat her correctly.’
She added: ‘Lydia Mugambe has exploited and abused the victim - taking advantage of her lack of understanding of her rights to properly paid employment and deceiving her as to the purpose of her coming to the UK.’
Mugambe denies breaching UK immigration law, facilitating travel with a view to exploitation, forcing someone to work and conspiracy to intimidate a witness.The trial continues.
