VULNERABLE people were held by a group of travellers and forced to work like slaves for little or no pay and live in squalor, a court heard.

Brothers Jerry and John Connors and their brother in law William were "the bosses" of the travelling group who had set up camp in the New Forest last summer.

Southampton Crown Court heard how they had picked up and taken in "vulnerable" men who were initially offered a roof over their heads, up to £40 a day and food in return for carrying out labouring work for them.

They were tasked with hard manual jobs such as block paving and resurfacing people's driveways and on quiet days they were made to go out and canvass by knocking at people's doors.

Back at the camp, they were forced to work as the Connors' domestic servants, sweeping, brushing up and picking up their rubbish as well as washing and cleaning their caravans and cars.

But if they even considered escaping they were threatened with violence and told they would be tracked down and brought back, the court was told.

After being moved on by police from their base in Stoney Cross on June 14 last year, the court was told how they moved into a car parkin Ensign Way, near Hamble shore, taking the men with them.

Police however raided the site some ten days later after surveillance of the site in which they watched the men working and realised the extent of their squalid living conditions.

The court heard how some of the victims had been sleeping in small blue tents while others had slept in a tipper truck on the site, while the Connors family had a luxury caravan each.

Prosecutor Charles Thomas, opening the case, said that each of the four victims was isolated and vulnerable. On the travellers camps they worked in groups for diffrerent members of the COnnors family and were banned from interacting with each other or socialising with the wider general public.

Jerry Connors, 30, from Luton, John Connors, 30, from Surrey and William Connors, 38, from Nottingham, all deny charges of holding another person in slavery or servitude, and requiring another person to perform forced or compulsory labour.

Proceeding