warren morris
Kevin Warren (R) and Donna Morris (L) from Leicester, pleaded guilty to a charge under the Modern Slavery Act after inflicting ‘truly shocking’ sexual abuse on a young woman. Leicestershire Police

An evil couple who kept a vulnerable young woman as their sex slave for almost 18 months treating her "worse than an animal" have been jailed for a total of 22 years.

Kevin Warren, 27, and his partner Donna Morris, 35, embarked on a campaign of "physical, emotional and sexual abuse" of a woman, in her twenties.

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The victim was enslaved by the couple after a "chance meeting" with Warren before she eventually contacted police after she confided in a friend.

During her horror ordeal, the unidentified woman was raped and her finances controlled by the couple, from Barwell, who pleaded guilty to a charge under the Modern Slavery Act at the start of their trial.

Warren also admitted five counts of rape against the woman, and he was jailed for 18 years with five years on licence following his release.

Morris was jailed for four years at Leicester Crown Court on Friday (19 January).

The woman, who can't be named for legal reasons, said after the sentencing: "During the 17 months I was treated worse than an animal. By the end, I had nothing left.

"My spirit and fight had gone, and I was barely human. One day I could take no more and fell apart."

She added: "They took complete control over all my finances, leaving me vulnerable and reliant on them in all aspects of my life.

"That led to police involvement, and the day I spoke to the police was the day I began to turn my life around.

"Looking back now, I can't believe how degrading, brutal, and traumatising it had been, and how it had all but destroyed me."

Leicestershire Police Detective Inspector Mark Parish, who lead the investigation, said the crimes committed against the victim were "truly shocking in their wickedness, their wantonness, and their horror".

"I cannot begin to imagine the torment this young, vulnerable woman went through in those 17 months," said Parish.

"It beggars belief that people can treat a fellow human being in such a grotesquely cruel fashion."

UK crime