Police detective issues update on woman kept as slave for 25 years by British mum-of-10

Warning: This article contains discussions of abuse which some readers may find distressing.

A police detective has now issued an update on the welfare of the woman who was kept as a slave for over two decades.

The victim, who has not been named, moved in with British mum-of-10 Amanda Wixon around 1996 due to struggles with her own family, but Wixon seemingly left her to rot and made her work as a 'slave' for her brood and herself. Having first moved when she was a teenager, she only escaped in 2021 after police were finally alerted to the possible crimes, which included cruelty and abuse on the part of Wixon.

Wixon was accused of knocking out the victim's teeth with a broom as well as regularly shaving her head, denying her food and the opportunity to clean herself, and also splashing her in the face with bleach.

Police footage of the arrest, which took place in March 2021, has now been released. Wixon is set to be sentenced in March 2026 after the jury at Gloucester Crown Court unanimously agreed on a guilty verdict earlier this month.

The woman - who had lost most of her teeth due to poor hygiene - said to police: “I don’t want to be here. I don’t feel safe. Mandy hits me all the time. I don’t like it.

“I haven’t washed for years. She doesn’t let me.”

The victim's filthy bedroom (Gloucestershire Constabulary)

Now, as Wixon faces a potentially serious jail sentence after being convicted of modern slavery, a police detective has delivered a promising update on the victim and her current situation, after escaping her nightmare prison nearly five years ago.

Detective Sergeant Alex Pockett said: "The victim is now doing extremely well. She's in a shared lives placement so she's being looked after by a foster mother and she's doing really well now.

"She’s gone back to college. She's studying maths and English. She's been on holidays abroad and she's also playing for a local football team which she really enjoys. So she's doing really well now."

Wixon, 56, has continually refused to acknowledge that she had done anything wrong when accosted by the media following her court appearance.

Prosecutor Sam Jones told the jury at the time of the victim's treatment: “She was kept in and prevented from leaving the address and she was assaulted and hit many, many times and forced to work with the threats of violence.

“She had been denied food and the ability to wash over many years.”

He added: “The lack of records from the hospital, the doctor and the dentist or any involvement with social services for 20 years provides further support of her never being allowed to leave the house.

“By the late 1990s, it appears the woman disappeared into a black hole. Not a single meeting that left a record or a single sighting of her outside the house.”