For many, mentions of “slavery” conjure images of historical atrocities that have since been eradicated, however, this could not be further from the truth.

In the UK alone, an estimated 13,000 people are being exploited under Modern Slavery, often hidden in plain sight.

Criminal organisations exploit children and vulnerable adults by coercing them to run "county lines" drug trafficking networks. They manipulate their targets into holding a mobile phone ("the line") and supplying drugs to those who call the number. The children are normally moved from their home to sell drugs in rural or coastal towns in different counties. The gangs will often groom their targets, using promises of community, money, and the allure of gang life to initiate them into the culture, leading to the victims often not realising that they are being exploited.

In my work as a solicitor, I am often called to the police station and courts to clients who present as withdrawn and quiet for no apparent reason. Recently I acted for a 16 year-old boy who came from a broken home and had many incidents of petty crime on his record. He was accused of involvement in serious drug dealing which seemed like a huge leap in his level of offending. At first, he denied that he had anything to do with a gang but over the coming weeks a different picture started to unfold. His mother informed me that armed men had come looking for her son at one stage threatening to harm him and his family. Little things he had said and done over a period of time began to make more sense.

I instructed an expert in modern slavery and we submitted a report via the National Referral Mechanism. Both the expert and the Government body found that there was clear evidence my client had been groomed and exploited by a criminal gang. He was frightened; far more frightened of the gang than of the police. With the help of these findings I was able to successfully argue that the Prosecution should drop the case against him.