{"id":29305,"date":"2025-05-02T12:58:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T16:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=29305"},"modified":"2025-05-02T12:58:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T16:58:01","slug":"un-judge-who-forced-woman-to-work-as-slave-jailed-for-more-than-six-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2025\/05\/02\/un-judge-who-forced-woman-to-work-as-slave-jailed-for-more-than-six-years\/","title":{"rendered":"UN judge who forced woman to work as slave jailed for more than six years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A United Nations judge has been jailed for six years and four months after being convicted of forcing a young Ugandan woman to work as a slave in Britain.<\/p>\n

Lydia Mugambe, 50, was found guilty of conspiring to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law, facilitating travel with a view to exploitation, forcing someone to work, and conspiracy to intimidate a witness after a trial at Oxford Crown Court.<\/p>\n

The trial was told Mugambe, a High Court judge in Uganda who was in the UK studying for a PhD, forced her victim to work as her maid and provide free childcare while preventing her from holding down steady employment.<\/p>\n

Mugambe took “advantage of her status” as a judge over her victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, in the “most egregious way” and tricked her into coming to the UK, the court heard.<\/p>\n

\n
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\"Lydia<\/div>
Lydia Mugambe. (Image: PA\/Andreisabirye\/CC-BY 4.0)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jurors were also shown\u00a0footage of Mugambe telling police she had “immunity”<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and was “not a criminal” when she was arrested by Thames Valley Police.<\/p>\n

She told officers she had a diplomatic passport and that she came to the UK as a student who didn’t “need anyone to work for [her]”.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t come with her, she asked me because she has worked at my home before, she asked me,” Mugambe told police.<\/p>\n

Mugambe, who was studying for a PhD in law at the University of Oxford, was appointed to the\u00a0UN<\/strong><\/a>‘s judicial roster in May 2023, according to her UN profile page. That was three months after police were called to her address in Oxfordshire.<\/p>\n

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\"Lydia<\/div>
Lydia Mugambe during her arrest. (Image: Thames Valley Police)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Caroline Haughey KC, for the prosecution, said in court: “Lydia Mugambe has exploited and abused [the woman], 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.”<\/p>\n

The court was told the UN judge had the intention of “obtaining someone to make her life easier and at the least possible cost to herself”.<\/p>\n

Mugambe conspired with Ugandan deputy high commissioner John Leonard Mugerwa to bring the young woman to the UK, the court heard.<\/p>\n

The pair took part in a “very dishonest” trade-off, where Mr Mugerwa arranged for the Ugandan High Commission to sponsor the woman’s entrance into the UK.<\/p>\n

In exchange, Mugambe attempted to talk to a judge who headed a legal action Mr Mugerwa was named in, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Mugambe denied forcing the young woman to do household chores and claimed she “always” treated her with love, care and patience.<\/p>\n

The victim told the court how she felt “lonely” and “stuck” after her working hours were limited.<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0\"Sky<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A United Nations judge has been jailed for six years and four months after being convicted of forcing a young Ugandan woman to work as a slave in Britain. Lydia Mugambe, 50, was found guilty […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,109,2,4],"tags":[11237,2237,9998,11238],"class_list":{"0":"post-29305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"category-headline","9":"category-news","10":"category-uk","11":"tag-oxford-crown-court","12":"tag-uganda","13":"tag-uganda-high-court","14":"tag-uk-immigration-law","15":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29307,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29305\/revisions\/29307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}