Father potentially using his daughter as a slave!

Ghost_Chilli

Sorry if this seems bizarre but I don't know whether I am seeing something completely different or what I am seeing is real but before I report what I believe is happening. I want to see what other people think, just in case I am reading too much into this.

Over gosh, must be 4 years now. I started working with a woman in a small team on a food section within a well known supermarket. She is 38 years old, but upon meeting her. My immediate impression was that she was a bit strange and came across almost like a child. Within a few days of meeting her, I noticed an older male worker kept bringing her packs of nuts or seeds for her lunch. This man, I later discovered was her father. He was very manipulative from the off and tried turning me against other people in the store.

The longer I worked there, the more I become to really dislike him. I started asking more questions to his daughter after finding out things like her not being allowed to have a mobile phone or not having a TV at home. She lives with him and her mother and one busy Christmas at work she was doing every overtime hour under the sun. I asked her why, and she said she needed the money. I ask her what she does with her money and she says she gives it all to her dad for the housekeeping. The only money she gets is if he gives her £10 to go to the cinema. She isn't even allowed her bank card.

This has been going on for years and there is so much more I can say but I want to keep that private. Something happened recently that is so beyond that of normality that I feel I need to report her father. This is a fully grown woman with no friends, no social life, no money, no knowledge of anything modern and any time her father is around she looks like a child being told off. I really need to say something to someone because this is not normal in any situation.

System

Are you sure he is her father? Do you still work there ? Is it the kind of place where a thorough check of references is done and proper payslips made out ( ie with employee tax paid to HMRC) ?

Is she from overseas? I ask that only because it may be that he is not her father but has a hold on her because he paid for her to come to UK? It does happen.

if you are fairly certain something is wrong, I think you should report it, but try and do so in a way that will not raise suspicions, do not hint at it to her, or she may just 'disappear'.

bouicca21

Does she have learning difficulties?

Ghost_Chilli

Hi, she is British born but he is from overseas. I don't believe he is from where he says he is from. His accent to me would suggest Germany, and I did ask her when I first met him if he was from Germany but he is apparently from an English speaking country in which I have never heard anyone with an accent like his. Sorry for being vague. I don't want to post too much detail in case anyone reads this and knows who we are talking about.

The company we work for is very reputable and well known. In the department we work on though, me and her are the only two on permanent contracts. The rest of the staff we've had over the years are temps. Often they roll the temps contract over a couple of times, but then new ones come. I'm the only person who has worked with her for a long enough time to get to know her. She's worked there longer than I have and I've asked staff who've been around that length of time if they knew anything, and none of them have ever got to know her and just think she's strange. I've also asked about her dad and he came and worked here two months after she did and literally everyone has commented on him getting her lunch everyday which is always bags of nuts and seeds! I swear it's all she eats. I actually went to McDonald's one time for lunch and brought her back some food and that was the first time she had ever eaten a McDonald's. The taking of all her money to me seems like enough to report it and what happened recently is so weird, no normal person would do what she did. That's what made me seriously consider reporting it and what's worse is, she doesn't see anything wrong with what she was doing. Even the managers at work didn't know what to do and it ended with her getting a verbal warning and education on why she shouldn't do what she did. I personally think she's been doing it for years and only recently she got caught.

It's such a difficult situation, but I feel I need to inform someone. Does anyone know of anywhere I could speak confidentiality before going to the police? There's so much I can't write here and I just want know if going to the police is the best first option.

couriervanman

Well it certainly happens a lot more in the UK than people think.......social services should be able to point you in the right direction,there is also a modern slavery helpline number

https://www.modernslaveryhelpline.org/

Ghost_Chilli

No learning difficulties. She's very capable but her lack of an existence really shows when you talk to her. She's so far away from anything that it appears all her life is, is work. She does nothing else and I mean nothing. If you spoke to her, you would think you are talking to someone who has just time travelled from the 60's to 2019. This is no joke. I was showing her my phone as she's never had a mobile and I showed her how to take a picture and when she took the picture. She turned it over expecting it to print out a picture like a Polaroid camera. She really has no knowledge of anything in the current world.

chesky

Sorry, misread

wolfehouse

Please report to the modern slavery helpline (as above). Phone number is 08000 0121 700
They can then find out if there is really a problem

Yesterday was anti slavery day. Turns out (from a government study) even if people believe it is something happening they rarely believe it happens in their own neighbourhood.

chesky

Do you know her address?

DCFC79

Definitely report it asap.

Doodles

How very sad :-( I think you are right to be concerned. There certainly is a controlling and oppressive situation going on with her so I think you should voice your concerns to social services and perhaps even the Police?
Even if the Police won't act they may guide you to another route to help her.