‘Cinderella’ kept as slave by Romanian father and son

TOTTENHAM

A Romanian father and son kept their own ‘Cindarella’ as a domestic slave, a court heard.

Ioan Berlan, 47, and Reni Parczewski, 25, worked the pregnant woman as their house servant after offering her accommodation at a house in Tottenham, north London.

The Polish victim was threatened with ‘grave consequences’ if they perform her duties, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Andrew Frymann, prosecuting, said: ‘She was a vulnerable woman, she hadn’t been very well.

‘Knowing of the medical difficulties because they took her to the hospital, she was still told to wash the floor and clean and a day later had to go back to normal cleaning duties.

‘She was told to clean the floor, wash the dishes.

‘She was forced to work in the house as a servant.
‘She was told if she didn’t clean the house there would be consequences, grave consequences.’
Reading from the victim’s statment Mr Frymann told the court she was treated as a ‘toy’ by a child in the home.
She said: ‘A five-year-old child treated me like a toy.
‘He told me I was a whore.
‘I couldn’t go out anywhere, I was their servant.
‘I came to the conclusion I will run away or be a servant for the rest of my life.’
Describing the case Judge Peter Testar said: ‘It sounds to me like Cinderella, though that’s a rather simple summary.’

Berlan, of West Green Road, Tottenham, and Parczeksi, of Hydeside Gardens, Enfield, admitted  holding a person in slavery and servitude.

The court heard how Parczewski and Berlan – known as ‘Max’ – made her work for up to 12 hours a day.
Mr Frymann said: ‘The prosecution say that they were acting jointly in essence as a team.
‘The complainant is a 19-year-old woman who came to this country seeking work and a better life than the life she had in Poland.
They promised her £40 a day and she would be able to stay with Berlan and his wife without paying rent.
But none of this money ever materialised and Mr Frymann described the victim as ‘penniless’.
She had been told that ‘life would be much better for her in London’ the poor woman ended up stuck cleaning the one-bedroom flat day after day.
Immediately after first being shown around by Berlan she was asked to ‘wash the floors and wash the dishes’.
The first two weeks was described by the woman as ‘spending her time just cleaning the house’ followed by eight weeks ‘in servitude’ at the small flat.
Mr Frymann explained that the pair had offered the woman work at Magic Hand Car Wash in Edmonton where she received £35 for a day’s work.
But she was forced to give up the job after a miscarriage.
In her police interview she said: ‘A day earlier when I noticed that I am bleeding and Max knew that I am miscarrying, that I am in the process of miscarrying, he told me to wash the floor and clean.
‘A day or two [after the miscarriage] I had to go back to normal cleaning duties.
‘I was ordered to clean the house regardless of whether I was well or unwell.
‘I was used to clean and play a role of a servant for everybody.’
The woman was subjected to cleaning from 9am through to 9pm while also being ‘on every beck and call of the child’ that would supposedly hit her.
Parczewski threatened the poor teenager that he would take her to Birmingham for her to work as a prostitute in a brothel.
She also told police how Parczewski had told her he wanted to ‘beat her up’ and that he was sad following the miscarriage as he was hoping to get the benefit payments.
The father and son would use ‘controlling behaviour’ and the woman was told she was ‘of no use’ after her miscarriage.
Parczewski claimed the woman and her partner would ‘eat like animals’ and were of ‘limited use’ to the household as part of his ‘systematic bullying’, Mr Frymann claimed.
Berlan even took her to a bank in February to set up an account to put her only £10 into but she never received the bank card personally and the account was emptied at a Lidl near Berlan’s home after the woman had fled.
She and her partner’s travel documents were also taken from them before they fled and complained at the Polish consulate on February 22.
‘I came to the conclusion that either I will run away or I will be a servant for the rest of my life,’ she told police.
Revantha Amarashina, for Parczewski, claimed there was an ‘expectation’ that the woman and her partner would ‘pay a way’ in the household.
The court also heard Parczewski’s wife is due to give birth in two days time and that he had twice previously been cautioned by common assaults last year.
Anthony Heaton-Armstrong, for Berlan, asserted that his client was actually ‘helping out’ the woman and her partner by giving them somewhere to stay.
Berlan was said to be ‘providing them with a home to enable them to get started and achieve their ambitions’.
Mr Heaton-Armstrong said: ‘He expected some sort of reasonable return for what they were obtaining from him.
‘It was made clear to [the victim] that she was expected to do her bit and to start off with that was done in a reasonable way.’
The barrister added that Berlan claimed the woman had ‘exposed a disinclination to work’ and was unaware of any threats made to her.