What is the world turning into? You may ask. Be warned all that glitters is not gold, hypocrites have infiltrated the holy vocation, and pastors have become vampires, thus making it salient to sound this note of caution:” be careful under whose care you entrust the welfare of your minors”.
A church pastor is facing jail after trafficking children into Britain and keeping them as servants in her home in a case described as "modern day slavery", it can be revealed today.
Lucy Adeniji, 44, smuggled two children and a 21-year-old woman into Britain from Nigeria on false passports claiming they were her own.
With disturbing echoes of the Victoria Climbié tragedy, the Nigerian, an illegal immigrant and mother of five, promised the children's parents she would give them a better life in the UK, but instead delivered vicious beatings if they failed to please her.
The alarm was raised when the older "servant" ran from Adeniji's Barking home in just a towel after being beaten and forced to strip and kneel down.
Adeniji, who has written a series of books on child care, was convicted of assault, child cruelty and facilitating illegal entry into the UK of a child.
She also admitted six counts of obtaining false passports for herself and her own children and two counts of facilitating illegal entry.
Detectives from the Met's Operation Paladin squad which tackles child trafficking say the case highlights growing concern over children brought to Britain for domestic servitude or benefit fraud.
Adeniji faces a separate inquiry into thousands of pounds she claimed in benefits for her own children.
Two of her "servants" gave evidence against her at Isleworth crown court.
A jury heard how Adeniji took Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji into her five bedroom home in Ray Gardens, Barking, after she was brought into the country aged 11 from Nigeria on a false passport.
Buki, who arrived in 1997, was supposed to be continuing her education in Britain but was never sent to school and was forced to wait on Adeniji's own children. Her day started at 5am and she was not allowed to bed until 1am.
She was regularly beaten, prosecutor Tim Starkey said, and on one occasion pepper was put in her eyes and genitals as punishment and she was struck with a meat cleaver.
Adeniji also brought Solomon Ordu, who arrived when he was 15 in 2000, and Dorcus Amoo, who was 21, when she arrived, into the UK on false passports. Both were kept as house workers and routinely beaten, the court heard. Mr Starkey said: "All three stayed at her house, effectively as domestic servants and worked unpaid carrying out chores looking after her own five children. They were physically mistreated."
Detective Inspector Gordon Valentine, of Paladin, said : "At just 11-years old, a time when any child should rightfully be at school, this poor young girl was forced to feed her keepers' children, wash their clothes and do the household cleaning, with little or no access to the outside world.
"Not only this, but she was in a strange country and beaten. This is an illustration that even in our society that slavery still exists and is happening within in our communities. We are asking people to be aware of this and bring these matters to the attention of the authorities."
Adeniji faces sentencing next month after being convicted on Friday. Victoria Climbié was eight when she died at the hands of her guardian, great-aunt Marie Therese Kouao, who was found guilty of murder along with her boyfriend Carl Manning in 2003.
The girl's parents sent her to London from Ivory Coast for a better life but she was beaten and tortured and died in
Huhuonline.com can disclose that in the last two months, two members of the clergy, originally of Nigerian descent were found guilty by the British legal system on charges stemming from molestation of minors. The latest is a Pastor (Mrs.) Lucy Adeniji; who was convicted on Friday 11 February at Isleworth Crown Court for her role in keeping trafficked children as domestic servants and assisting with illegal immigration. At her sentencing on Friday March 18, forty four years Lucy Adeniji was handed an eleven and half a year sentence for assault of a child, child cruelty and facilitating. the illegal entry of a child into the UK.
Huhuonline.com understands that her woes began in early 2009, when a 23-year-old woman (Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji), after a brutal assault by Pastor Adeniji, ran out of her Ray Gardens, Barking home in towels and went to a police station and made historic allegations that she had been brought to the UK in early 1997, abused and exploited as cheap childcare until 2006 by Lucy Adeniji. Our checks show that under interview on 15 April 2009 by officers from Operation Paladin, a joint Metropolitan Police Service and UK Border Agency team, Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji, further stated that at the age of 11 years old, in December 1997, she was brought to the UK by a man she knew as 'Kenny' and placed in the Adeniji household. While in the Adeniji household Buki was to care for the 4 children, in particular their disabled daughter.
Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji stated that she was not enrolled in school nor registered with a doctor, denied friends and regularly verbally abused and beaten by Lucy Adeniji.
However, in 2000, the Adeniji family moved to the USA and victim Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji was sent to live elsewhere until they returned in November 2003.
On her return to the Adeniji household, Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji found that the Adeniji's had a further house girl, Dorcus Amoo living with them and that a boy Solomon Ordu had also been used as a houseboy but had run away. Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji describes life back in the Adeniji household as volatile and she was regularly beaten and verbally abused by Adeniji.
Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji described a number of assaults to police, One particular assault in April 2006 was described in detail whereby Adeniji repeatedly hit her with a stick following an argument over a fish meal, to the extent that Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji fell to the floor unconscious and was then kicked in the head by Adeniji. Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji states that Dorcus Amoo witnessed this assault, and then told her that Adeniji was going to kill her.
At around the same time as the alleged assault and threat, a pastor at church gave a sermon about parental responsibility and childcare.
Olubukols 'Buki' Adeniji told police that this spurred her on to leave the house and she ran away to stay with friends. Metropolitan Police Service, Detective Inspector Gordon Valentine, from Operation Paladin, said: "At just 11 years old, a time when any child should rightfully be at school, this poor young girl was forced to feed her keepers' children, wash their clothes and do the household cleaning, with little or no access to the outside world. Not only this, but she was in a strange country and beaten for her loyalty".
Julie Reene, assistant director, UK Border Agency, said:
"This was a truly shocking case in which vulnerable children were trafficked into the UK and treated appallingly. Adeniji exploited her victims in the most terrible ways. We will continue to work closely with the police and other law enforcement partners to prevent and prosecute this kind of awful crime". "On 19 May 2009, Adeniji's home address was searched by police and she was arrested on suspicion of trafficking for the purpose of domestic servitude".
