United Nations Judge Is Convicted of Forcing Young Woman to Work as Her Slave

A United Nations judge has been convicted of forcing a young woman to work as a slave.

Prosecutors said Lydia Mugambe, 49, took ‘advantage of her status’ over her victim in the ‘most egregious way’ by preventing her from holding down steady employment and forcing her to work as her maid and to provide childcare for free.

Mugambe, who is also a High Court judge in Uganda, was found guilty on Thursday of conspiring to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law.

She was also found guilty of facilitating travel with a view to exploitation, forcing someone to work, and conspiracy to intimidate a witness following a trial at Oxford Crown Court.

Prosecutor Caroline Haughey KC told jurors: ‘Lydia Mugambe has exploited and abused (her alleged victim), taking advantage of her lack of understanding of her rights to properly paid employment and deceiving her as to the purpose of her coming to the UK.’

Jurors accepted the prosecution’s case that Mugambe had engaged in ‘illegal folly’ with Ugandan deputy high commissioner John Leonard Mugerwa, in which they conspired to arrange for the young woman to come to the UK.

Prosecutors said the pair participated in a ‘very dishonest’ trade-off, in which Mr Mugerwa arranged for the Ugandan High Commission to sponsor the woman’s entrance into the UK.

In exchange, Mugambe attempted to speak to a judge who was in charge of legal action Mr Mugerwa was named in.

Mugambe’s trial heard she had the intention of ‘obtaining someone to make her life easier and at the least possible cost to herself’.

Mugambe – who was studying for a law PhD at the University of Oxford – denied forcing the young Ugandan woman to do household chores and said she ‘always’ treated her with love, care and patience.

The young woman Mugambe tricked into coming to the UK, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court previously she felt ‘lonely’ and ‘stuck’ after her working hours were limited.

According to her UN profile page, Mugambe was appointed to the body’s judicial roster in May 2023 – three months after police were called to her address in Oxfordshire.

Ms Haughey said: ‘Lydia Mugambe has exploited and abused the victim – taking advantage of her lack of understanding of her rights to properly paid employment and deceiving her as to the purpose of her coming to the UK.

‘On her arrival she was made to work for Ms Mugambe from the very start, un-remunerated and acting as ‘maid’ and child carer to give Ms Mugambe back her ‘life’.

‘Deprived of her freedom to choose her work, to control of her ID documents, she was beholden to Lydia Mugambe.

‘If there was any doubt about this, it can be removed by considering that the minute the victim challenged the defendant’s authority and tried to have control of her own ID documents, she was threatened with being returned to Uganda.

‘A young woman brought in for the convenience of Mugambe’s life but mistreated, mistreated by Lydia Mugambe, a woman of power and intelligence who had no qualms in lying not only to the victim but to the police when they sought to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the victim.’

The victim entered the UK on July 9, 2022, the jury was told.

Mugambe asked her in March 2022 if she was interested in coming to the UK to be her child minder.

The jury heard that on February 10 2023, Thames Valley Police received a call to an address in Oxfordshire having received a report from a woman claiming the victim was being held as a slave.

Later that day the victim was found in a TK Maxx store in Oxford – with the reporting party believing her to be a victim of modern slavery, the prosecutor said.

On March 20, 2022, Lydia Mugambe attended an event in the Ugandan High Commission in London.

There she met the Ugandan Deputy High Commissioner John Leonard Mugerwa.

The victim’s visa sponsorship form showed that she was going to work for the ambassador as a private domestic servant in a diplomatic household under the employ of John Leonard Mugerwa in – the Ugandan Deputy High Commissioner – in North London – the court heard.

The jury was told that there were false particulars of employment in her visa sponsorship and the alleged victim was never intended to work at the embassy.

Mugambe treated the alleged victim as an ‘unpaid skivvy,’ the prosecutor said.

Ms Haughey said: ‘That meeting at the High Commission with the Deputy High Commissioner was the turning point when Lydia Mugambe started an illegal folly with the Deputy High Commissioner to bring the alleged victim into the UK.’

The jury returned three unanimous guilty verdicts regarding conspiring to do an act to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law by a non-UK national, requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour and conspiring to intimidate a witness.

A majority guilty verdict was returned regarding a fourth charge of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation.