Farmer accused of enslaving his wife and six kids to work on their Victorian property
A Victorian father has been accused of using threats, violence and intimidation to force his family into slavery on their regional farm.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared in the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday for the first day of his estimated six-week trial.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including seven charges of inducing another to enter into and remain in servitude.
In his opening statement to the 14-member jury, Patrick Doyle SC said the prosecution’s case was about a family ‘living under tyranny’.
“The suspects dominated their lives through physical violence, threats and intimidation,” he said.
“He not only abused his physical power over them, but he was also psychologically and emotionally abusive… for years he succeeded.
“They lived under tyranny in every sense of the word.”
Mr Doyle told the court the family had moved from the interstate to a property in Victoria.
The trial is expected to last six weeks as the prosecutor claims the family lived under strict control of the father
Over a six-year period before police became involved in 2021, the man allegedly forced his wife and six children to work, controlling other aspects of their lives, including when they could eat, drink and shower, Mr. Doyle.
“They did that out of fear of being beaten by him if they didn’t follow his instructions,” he told the jury.
“Any reasonable person would not have regarded them as having the liberty to refuse if he demanded that they work on the farm.”
Mr Doyle told the jury that prosecutors alleged he controlled all aspects of their lives, leaving the children without school friends and his wife without contact with her family.
He said the court will hear from each of the alleged victims about the suspect’s behavior, which reportedly included threats with firearms and agricultural implements.
“The prosecution alleges that by the time they moved to (the farm), they were conditioned to be subservient to the will of the defendant,” Mr Doyle said.
‘Conditioned to obey him; conditioned to fear him.”
The man is said to have kept his family under tyrannical rule with threats and intimidation (stock image)
The court was told the couple first married decades ago, with the man reportedly demanding immediate submission.
Although he is not charged with any offenses in NSW, Mr Doyle said the jury would hear evidence from the time to prove the “dominance” exercised over the family existed long before they moved to Victoria.
Mr Doyle will continue to deliver his opening statements on Tuesday before the man’s lawyer, Alexander Patton, gives the defense’s response.
The process continues.