Afolake Adeniji, 50 (pictured outside court in August), was found guilty of a human trafficking offence
A fraud investigator who kept a teenager as her personal slave and made her work 16 hours a day for 11 years, is facing jail.
Afolake Adeniji, 50, was working at Plaistow job centre in east London when she tricked Iyabo Prosper to fly to London from Africa in 2003 when she was just 13.
The teenager had lived in poverty and was promised a better life and free education.
But the girl was forced to wake up at 5.30am each morning to look after Adeniji’s children before spending the rest of her day cooking and cleaning for the family.
‘She was completely submissive to the defendant and her family and any confidence she had was lost and ebbed away,’ said prosecutor Irshad Sheikh.
‘Effectively that was what she was living – the life of domestic servitude.’
He added: ‘It soon became apparent that Iyabo had become miserable, had become extremely depressed, was having negative thoughts and suicidal ideas.’
Ms Prosper, now 27, claimed Adeniji was so verbally abusive towards her that she now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
She eventually ‘plucked up the courage’ to report her treatment to a friend and Adeniji was arrested in October 2014.
Today a jury found Adeniji guilty of arranging or facilitating the travel of Ms Prosper to the UK for exploitation.
Plaistow Job Centre, where Adeniji had worked in the fraud and error prevention service
They cleared her of inflicting GBH, namely post-traumatic stress disorder, on the teenager.
Adeniji raised both hands and mouthed ‘Thank you Jesus’ when the not guilty verdict was announced.
But she sat teary-eyed flanked by two dock officers when the jury later convicted her of the human trafficking offence.
Judge Stephen Robbins warned the mother, who is originally from Nigeria, she faced a custodial sentence and ordered that she be made subject to an electronically-monitored curfew ahead of sentence next month.
She must also surrender her passport within 24 hours and was barred from applying for travel documents or travelling outside of the UK.
Mr Sheikh told jurors that Iyabo ‘was lured into this country with a promise of education and a better life’.
‘Instead, she was forced to live a life of domestic servitude,’ he said.
‘She was forced to clean, mind the defendant’s children and effectively live the life of a house girl.’
Jurors heard Ms Prosper was forced to work ‘for up to 16 hours a day’, first at an unknown address in Beckton and then at another house in Chelmsford.
‘She was led to believe that her life would be better, that she would receive an education,’ continued Mr Sheikh.
‘Because in Nigeria, where she had been living, education had to be paid for and she was from a poor family.’
Ms Prosper, now 27, claimed Adeniji (pictured) was so verbally abusive towards her that she now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder
Adeniji’s relatives coached the teen through her passport and visa applications before she flew to the UK in August 2003.
The court heard she had to share the box room occupied by Adeniji’s children and would be up at 5.30am to get them fed and ready for school.
Household chores would occupy the rest of her day until she had to pick them up, prepare dinner for the family and tidy up before getting to bed at around 10.30pm.
Adeniji told the court: ‘She was part of a loving family. She’s making up all these stories’.
During cross-examination Mr Sheikh suggested ‘that Iyabo was brought here to this country to ‘help’ you and do the chores that she has mentioned’.
‘That is not correct,’ Adeniji replied, before the prosecutor followed up: ‘And that is what she did, I would suggest.’
She said the teenager could lie in bed all day if she wanted.
‘I did not need her to help me. Everything was already in place before she arrived.’
‘My husband is an early riser, he will have hoovered the stairs and cleaned the sitting room.
‘By the time we woke up, whatever was left, washing the bathroom – it could be me, Iyabo, it could be anybody – whatever was left we just took it because whatever needs to be done we just did it.’
‘All I did was just to help Iyabo.’
Adeniji, of no fixed address but previously of Eglington Drive, Chelmsford, Essex, denied but was convicted of arranging or facilitating the travel to the UK of a person with a view to exploitation.
She was cleared of inflicting GBH.
Adeniji was bailed ahead of sentence at Southwark Crown Court on 6 October.
She has since been fired by the job centre, where she was working in the fraud and error prevention service.