Keith and Caroline Baker of Craigavon in Northern Ireland imprisoned their victim for eight years and filmed assaults

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A couple in Northern Ireland have been jailed for imprisoning a disabled woman in their home and repeatedly sexually abusing her.

Keith and Caroline Baker held their victim in a bare room without light, carpet, bedclothes and curtains for eight years during which they repeatedly sexually abused her and filmed their assaults.

When the Police Service of Northern Ireland rescued the woman in 2012 they found she was severely emaciated and had only one tooth left. The victim has severe learning difficulties, the court was told.

The PSNI said the only toilet the woman had access to at the couple’s home in Craigavon, County Armagh, was overflowing with human waste.

Keith Baker, 61, was sentenced at Craigavon crown court on Tuesday to 15 years in jail and a further five years on licence when he is released.

His 56-year-old wife was sentenced to three years with 18 months to serve in jail and the remainder on licence.

Judge Patrick Lynch QC said: “It is not easy to understand how these individuals have so lost their moral compass that they could subject an individual who clearly exhibited serious mental defects to mistreatment, in sexual terms depriving her of any dignity and even the most basic of living standards.”



He added: “Mr Baker presented as a Svengali figure, exercising control on three women based on his dominance, willingness to resort to violence and total immorality.”



The trial heard that after the police raided the pair’s home, specialist officers examined Keith Baker’s computer and found hundreds of indecent images of the abused woman.

PSNI officers also found videos shot by Keith Baker showing him and his wife sexually assaulting their victim. Officers discovered a CCTV camera inside the woman’s room.

Next-door neighbours told police they had been unaware that the victim was living in the same property as the Bakers.

During the trial it emerged that in 2004 the victim’s husband, who also had severe learning difficulties, had reported her missing to police in England. She was taken to Northern Ireland by Keith Baker, the judge said.

The woman was only freed from the Bakers’ home after another woman, named in court as Miss X, raised the alarm. Miss X had lived in the couple’s house playing the role of a second wife to Keith Baker and was the mother to four of his eight children. The other four children belong to Caroline Baker.

A crown lawyer described the Bakers’ home as a “a grossly unconventional household”.

Keith and Caroline Baker originally denied all charges. However, last October Keith Baker admitted the rape and assault of the woman over an eight-year period.

His wife admitted helping him and indecently assaulting the woman herself.