The case of two men accused of keeping vulnerable people in slave-like conditions has been dramatically stopped.
The jury at Southampton Crown Court that was hearing evidence in the case of John and William Connors was discharged after the judge ruled there was to be a retrial in January.
The ruling comes as the trial was halfway through its second week of hearing evidence.
The two men had been accused of forcing vulnerable men to carry put work with little or no pay.
Throughout the case John Connors, 30, from Stropley, Luton, and William Connors. 38, from Bulwell near Nottingham, have always denied three counts of holding the men in slavery or servitude between April 6 2010 and June 24 2011.
They deny three alternative counts of requiring the men to perform forced labour between the same dates.
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