A HARROW widow who reduced her domestic servant to a modern day slave in a “degrading ordeal” has been labelled deplorable by police.

Saeeda Khan was supposed to pay Mwanahanisi Mruke around £40 a month but even this meager salary was too much for the 68-year-old, who coughed up only a portion of it.

The Pakistani national rung a bell to summon her victim, deprived her of food, confiscated her passport and visa, listened in on phone calls to relatives and stopped her visiting her dying parents or going to their funerals.

Khan had a spare bed in the room of one of her children but made Ms Mruke sleep on a thin mattress on the kitchen floor during the four year saga and claimed in court the 47-year-old had chosen that arrangement for her privacy.

The defendant told Southwark Crown Court her victim was “smiling, happy and cheerful” in her Whitmore Road home and worked just six hours a day.

In reality Ms Mruke's shifts were three times as long and she was forced to work following an operation for varicose veins, when she was under doctors orders to rest with her feet up.

Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Martin, head of the Human Exploitation and Organised Crime Command, said: “Human trafficking is one of the biggest generators of criminal finance in the world.

“Forcing people to work as slaves is a deplorable part of this immoral trade and one that we will do everything we can to stop.

“This particular case highlights the lengths that traffickers will go to when trying to avoid prosecution.

“I would like to commend the victim who has shown incredible strength and courage by coming forward to the authorities to relay her terrifying and degrading ordeal.”

Ms Mruke was only saved from her ill treatment after going to a doctors appointment when Khan was instructed to wait outside the consultation room while an interpreter translated for the patient.

The doctor asked why she was feeling upset and the victim used the rare opportunity to describe her desperate living conditions.

A charity was informed and police then went to Khan's house.

She was eventually charged, tried and convicted today on one count of trafficking people for exploitation.