3 women rescued from captivity after 30 years

r Three "deeply traumatized" women were rescued from
a London house where they were believed to have been
held captive for more than 30 years in a "barbaric"
ordeal, authorities said Thursday. One of the alleged victims, a 30-year-old British
woman, is believed to have been living in the house all
her life with no contact with the outside world, police
said. "We have never seen anything of this magnitude
before,"  Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland, from the
Metropolitan Police's Human Trafficking Unit, told a
press conference on Thursday. The Met said in an earlier statement that a man and a
woman, both 67, were arrested at the house in
Lambeth, South London, "as part of an investigation
into slavery and domestic servitude." The arrests came two weeks after officers rescued a
69-year-old Malaysian woman, a 57-year-old Irish
woman, and the 30-year-old British woman. Police said there was no evidence of sexual abuse and
they did not believe that the women were related to
each other. The information was only released after officers made
the arrests at approximately 7.30 a.m. (2.30 a.m. ET)
Thursday morning. Officers became aware of the situation after one of the
women made a telephone call to a domestic abuse
non-profit organization called Freedom Charity. Hyland said that police believed the woman had "some
controlled freedom" while in the house. "These are deeply traumatized people," he said. "They
have been taken to a place of safety. "We applaud the actions of Freedom Charity and are
working in partnership to support these victims who
appear to have been held for over 30 years. We have
launched an extensive investigation to establish the
facts surrounding these very serious allegations." He added: "We have dealt with many cases of
servitude. We have seen cases where people have been
held for up to 10 years, but we have never seen
anything of this magnitude before." A documentary on forced marriages relating to the
work of Freedom Charity had prompted one of the
women to call for help, claiming she had been held
against her will in the house for 30 years. Speaking on Sky News, Aneeta Prem, founder of the Freedom Charity, said the three women agreed to
contact the charity after they saw her speaking on
television. "That gave them the courage to make that phone call,"
she said. "It was very difficult for them, but they
managed to get to a phone. "We talked to them when we could. It had to be a secret
because they felt they were in massive danger and with
the help of the police we were able to get them out." She described the women’s ordeal as "barbaric" and
said they were "terrified" of their captors. "I can’t
believe human beings can treat each other in that way,"
she added. Prem said that the house in which they were kept was
an "ordinary house in an ordinary street that would not
raise concerns." "They did have rooms that they could use but they
were very restricted."