Rooney & Ors, R. v

Forced or compulsory labour requires proof that work was obtained through physical or mental constraint which overrode the worker’s will, so that the worker did not offer the labour voluntarily. The inquiry requires an assessment of all the circumstances, including vulnerability, conditions, threats, freedom of movement and the reality of any apparent consent. Low pay or poor working conditions alone do not establish the offence.

When considering whether jury difficulties require discharge, the decisive question is whether a fair trial can continue. On sentence, forced-labour offending merits severe punishment, but sentence depends on the particular harm and culpability. Consecutive terms remain subject to totality.

Seven members of the Rooney family appealed from convictions and sentences imposed after a five-month trial in the Crown Court at Nottingham. Five appellants had been convicted of conspiracy to require persons to perform forced or compulsory labour under Coroners and Justice Act 2009, section 71. Some were also convicted of violence, theft, fraud or revenue offences. Two appellants had pleaded guilty to substantive forced-labour offences.

The prosecution alleged that vulnerable men were made to work in a driveway business and on a travellers’ site for little or no pay, in poor conditions and under violence, threats, debt and exploitation. The conviction appeals challenged, principally, the trial judge’s refusals to discharge the jury following irregularities and his directions on forced or compulsory labour. The sentence appeals raised culpability, comparative sentencing and totality.

1. The conviction appeals were dismissed. The trial judge should promptly have informed counsel of the first juror report and invited submissions. That lapse did not make the verdicts unsafe. On each later application, the correct question was whether a fair trial remained possible. The judge was best placed to assess the jury’s mood and capacity to fulfil its duties. His enquiries, directions and decisions to discharge individual jurors where necessary entitled him to conclude that the remaining jury could continue fairly.

2. The directions on forced or compulsory labour were legally sufficient. Under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, construed consistently with Article 4, the prosecution had to establish physical or mental constraint and an overriding of the worker’s will, so that labour was not offered voluntarily. Following Van der Mussele v Belgium (1984) 6 EHRR 163, the jury had to assess all the circumstances. Relevant matters included vulnerabilities, working and living conditions, violence or threats, freedom of movement, documents, benefits and the reality of consent.

3. Low pay alone, even if derisory, was not coercion. Exploitation can fall short of forced or compulsory labour. Conversely, vulnerability and an employer’s abuse of power may be material to whether work was genuinely voluntary. The expressions “pure economic necessity” and “take it or leave it” did not replace the required all-circumstances assessment. Although the summing-up’s format and use of the word “some” were capable of criticism, read as a whole it required proof of some form of constraint and did not lower the threshold for conviction.

4. On sentence, the court held that forced-labour offending involves a grave interference with personal autonomy and ordinarily calls for severe punishment. Earlier cases did not create either a benchmark or a compulsory upward trend. Sentence depended on the duration, number of victims, conditions, coercion, harm and each offender’s role.

5. The sentence appeals of Bridget Rooney and Martin Rooney (Junior) were dismissed. The court allowed the sentence appeals of Martin Rooney (Senior), Patrick Rooney, John Martin Rooney, Gerry Rooney and Lawrence Rooney to correct excessive overall terms or starting points. It substituted totals of 9 years 9 months, 13 years 9 months, 13 years 6 months, and 4 years 3 months respectively for Gerry Rooney and Lawrence Rooney.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): Conviction appeals dismissed in [2019] EWCA Crim 681. Sentence appeals were allowed in part for five appellants, with substituted sentences.
• Crown Court at Nottingham: Five defendants were convicted after trial of conspiracy to require forced or compulsory labour. Two further defendants pleaded guilty to substantive forced-labour offences. Sentences of imprisonment were imposed on 5 May 2017 and subsequently.