THE squalid prison cell where a slave was kept for 25 years by a mum-of-ten has been seen for the first time in police body cam footage.
Evil Amanda Wixon, 56, held vulnerable K captive at her council house from the age of 14 after taking her in in 1996.
In a case described as “Dickensian” by the judge, K was beaten and kicked regularly by Wixon and on several occasions thrown down the stairs.
She was also struck in the face with a broom handle, causing her to lose several teeth.
During one harrowing attack, Wixon pushed her head into the toilet as she pulled the chain.
K, who referred to her captor as “The Witch”, rarely left the house in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire.
The kitchen windows were covered with black bin liners to prevent her from looking outside.
K was forced to clean the house and look after Wixon’s children and their pets.
She ate only leftovers once a day and was forbidden from taking basic food from the kitchen.
K was taken in by Wixon because K’s parents, described in court as members of her “extended family”, were having “difficulties.”
Her only refuge in the house of horrors was a damp, squalid bedroom with a filthy mattress and bedding, Gloucester Crown Court heard during a harrowing two-week trial.
Following more than 25 years of captivity in the horrific conditions K managed to escape after calling for help from a secret phone.
A 42 second clip captured by police body cameras has revealed the harrowing conditions K was forced to live in.
Seen in court, footage showed the damp bedroom where K was forced to sleep.
A dirty mattress and a pile of ragged blankets have been dumped in a pile in the corner of the room.
Unpainted walls enclose the tiny refuge, which was K’s only escape from Wixon.
In the footage a police officer also uncovers a tiny scrawled note from under a pillow, with several phone numbers scribbled on it.
He also appears to uncover what looks like a stash of coins hidden away under the bedding.
As the cop walks into the bedroom he can be heard saying: “Absolutely filthy bedding.”
When he moves on to uncover the note and the coins the cop says: “A note and the phone numbers, hidden under the pillow.”
K was found at the home, bruised, with no teeth, sleeping in the rancid bedroom.
Now in her 40s, K looked thin, unwashed and afraid when officers rescued her from Wixon’s home in March 2021.
One officer noted at the time: “She smelt heavily of body odour, even from two metres away. She was malnourished, timid and frightened.”
Wixon was arrested immediately, on suspicion of neglect.
Since her rescue, social workers handling her case, reported that K has put on weight and attends lessons in maths and English at a local college.
She also reportedly plays football regularly.
Few neighbours had ever even seen K, they say, and had no idea of her existence until Wixon’s arrest.
At least three of Wixon’s children still live at the large council property on a housing estate on the edge of the town.
Neighbours also claimed Wixon was a scratch card addict, saying: “Mandy is on every benefit going and used all her benefits to buy scratchcards.”
The “witch” was found guilty by a jury at Gloucester Crown Court for a string of offences including requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, false imprisonment, and assault.
Summing up, his Honour Judge Ian Lawrie KC told the jury: “There is almost a Dickensian quality to this case.
“The prosecution case is that she was held prisoner in this crowded house, where she was regularly assaulted physically and emotionally.
“You have to decide whether Mandy, who had young children when she took K in, did it out of selfless kindness towards her or because she was selfish and took advantage of a vulnerable, helpless youngster.”
Wixon will be sentenced next month.
