A Victorian father accused of enslaving his family on a regional estate allegedly told a child; ‘I can kill you any time’, when he complained that they were late for school.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, returned to the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday as prosecutors continued to outline their case.
He has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including seven counts of causing another person to enter and remain in servitude and three of intentionally causing injury.
Prosecutors alleged the man used violence, threats and intimidation to force his wife and children to do farm and domestic work over a period of about five years.
In his opening address to the jury, Patrick Doyle SC said the prosecution alleged the family was “living under tyranny” on the working farm in regional Victoria.
Doyle said the man was alleged to have conditioned his family to fear and obey him before moving off interstate, but the isolated farm led to worse threats, violence, manipulation and belittlement.
While working on the farm, the family was allegedly locked out of the house and unable to access food, clean water or bathrooms until he decided they were done.
The man is accused of treating his loved ones like slaves to harvest produce, dig irrigation canals, care for animals and build fences, in addition to other tasks such as paying taxes and cleaning the house.
The family was allegedly beaten with objects found on the farm, such as irrigation hoses, if they ever refused or complained, Doyle told the jury.
The man allegedly kept his family under tyrannical rule with threats and intimidation (file image)
The Victorian Supreme Court heard the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, forced them to work for a period of about five years in extreme conditions.
He said a boy would recount sitting on the man’s all-terrain vehicle while running over wild dogs that had entered the property.
‘That’s what happens to people who disobey me. “That’s what happens if you don’t do what I tell you,” the man allegedly said.
Mr Doyle said another boy would give evidence that the man allegedly grabbed a rifle and said; ‘I can kill you any time’, when he complained that they were late for school.
He told the jury that the man was allegedly heard bragging to a neighbor that he didn’t need to work “because he had a family who did it for him.”
The prosecutor said the man’s children had “unusually numerous absences” from school which the Crown said were because they were forced to work.
Doyle said the man is alleged to have prohibited social relations outside the family, restricted their ability to leave the property and would arbitrarily introduce restrictions such as limiting food or access to hygiene products.
“The fundamental case is that when the family worked they did not have the freedom not to do so,” he said.
“They were not free to refuse any of those tasks without being subjected to violence.”
Mr. Doyle asked the jury to put themselves in the shoes of the alleged victims, questioning them; ‘Would you consider yourself free to stop working or leave the farm?’
“Being so completely dependent on one person’s whims… is not freedom,” he said.
Doyle told the jury that during the course of the trial they would hear from each family member, neighbors and school teachers.
The man has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including seven counts of causing another person to enter and remain in a bondage and three of intentionally causing injury.
In response, defense attorney Alexander Patton told the jury that his ex-wife and children had portrayed his client as a “monster” and said the central issue in the case was whether the jury could believe his accusations.
He told the jury it was not in dispute that his client’s family had helped on the farm by carrying out household chores, but denied that the farmer had ever used violence, threats or intimidation.
“Are they being forced to work or are they doing what generations of families have done before and collaborating?” he said.
‘This is not a case where (the man) sent his family to work in a business that was making him rich… this was a family helping out on a farm.
“This is a man accused of serious crimes that he simply did not commit.”
Patton said his client denied controlling his family’s freedom and questioned why his children would have been allowed to volunteer or receive support in their college goals if that were the case.
He urged the jury to keep an open mind until they had heard all the evidence and to give the man the same benefit of the doubt they would want if a loved one were wrongly accused.
The trial continues.