A Guinean couple based in texas have been sentenced for slavery .
The girl who is now 16,was just five years old, when she was trust with the responsibility of caring for a Texas couple’s children, cooking, cleaning and mowing the lawn.
She was abused and neglected for 16 years — until she escaped, according to a criminal complaint against the couple.
CNN reports that ,the pair has now been sentenced to seven years each in prison and nearly $300,000 in restitution, according to a Monday news release from the Justice Department.
Mohamed Toure, 58, and Denise Cros-Toure, 58, were convicted in January of forced labor, conspiracy to harbor an alien and alien harboring.
They both are citizens of Guinea — where the young girl was taken from — and lawful permanent residents of the US, but may lose their US immigration status and be deported to Guinea, the Justice Department said.
Her day began around 7 a.m., when the couple’s children left for school and continued until they went to sleep at night, the complaint says.
She didn’t eat with the couple and their five children and slept on the floor, investigators said. The couple kept her at home, isolated her, forced her to do housework and care for their children with no pay and made sure she was entirely dependent on them, according to the criminal complaint.
Scott Palmer, Cros-Toure’s attorney, says the couple didn’t pay the girl for her work because she was like family.
“They didn’t pay her, but you don’t pay family members to clean your own house,” he said. “She lived there, like anyone else did.” He said that the couple wanted to adopt the girl.
Toure’s attorney, Brady T. Watt III said those stories were fabricated in the girl’s attempt to stay in the US. Watt told CNN, the girl made the claims after her family asked that she be returned to Guinea.
“We know why this came about because this was her route to get a T-Visa,” Watt said. “She wasn’t a slave. She was charting runs on her Fitbit, doing modeling shoots.”
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
