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A cruel ice cream seller and his wife kept a vulnerable worker as a slave for nine weeks, battering and beating him and forcing him to scavenge in bins for food.

David and Donna Rooke and their 19-year-old son Jamie subjected defenceless Craig Kinsella to a string of horrific attacks with fists, steel

toe-capped boots, a spade, pick-axe handle and a crowbar.

The divorced dad-of-two was forced to pick up dog dirt before cleaning out the family’s ice cream vans every day from 7.30am until midnight.

(Image: PA)

Craig, 34, who had a low IQ and learning difficulties was kept ­imprisoned in the Rookes’ garage where he slept on an old carpet with a tattered curtain for a blanket.

He scoured their wheelie bin for food and used a bucket as a toilet. But he was too scared to flee because he believed the thugs who had shattered his fragile spirit by treating him like a dog would hunt him down.

And tonight Craig’s evil ­tormentors were behind bars after a judge said harrowing CCTV footage shown to a court of his horrendous beatings left him wincing in horror.

Police said after they were sentenced that if the victim had not been rescued when he was there was no doubt he would have died from his suffering.

When they found him, he was emaciated, had a broken arm, ­fractured ribs, lumps on his head and was covered in deep bruises.

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Judge Peter Kelson told Rooke, 44, his 40-year-old wife and son: “Man’s inhumanity to man never ceases to shock. It is a wake up call to us all.

“It is staggering that this is happening in our society. Absolutely staggering. Unbelievable. We have to wake up to the fact that in certain ­circumstances people do break the will of other people and use them to their own ends.

“If you were in a bad mood you would kick or hit Craig Kinsella. His will had been completely broken by you and the way you have treated him like a dog.

“He was kept hungry. He was constantly beaten and battered. When you see the CCTV you just have the awful feeling that he was just a punchbag for all three of you.

“You made him clear up dog dirt, then wash the ice cream van, before serving children.

“The conditions were grotesque. This was two months of horrendous violence. You could not watch the CCTV without wincing repeatedly. Their hatred is immeasurable.

“My fear is that there are more of these cases about and we are now only beginning to discover them.”

The sickening CCTV footage showed Craig being kicked by David Rooke, who was wearing steel toe-capped boots, while his wife stood and watched from the doorway of their home in her pink dressing gown.

In one attack he is ­throttled by the dad and lifted off the floor by his neck. And another clips shows him being thrown to the ground and stamped on while he is crumpled in agony on the floor.

(Image: Ross Parry)

Jamie would guard the gate to stop Craig escaping during the attacks. He was also filmed punching him in the ribs and holding the victim by the back of his neck to allow his dad to hit out.

Craig began working for the Rookes some years ago and was paid a modest £40 a week so he keep claiming benefits. But his slavery ordeal began when he moved into their garage, supposedly for one night, last May after they suffered a break-in and wanted someone to guard the property in ­Sheffield.

He then became too afraid to leave after David Rooke told him he would be a “dead man” if he escaped.

Prosecutor David Brooke told the city’s crown court the Rookes took Craig to the post office to withdraw his money and took control of his finances. He had a flat in the city and was occasionally driven there to have a bath.

The terrified captive was sent orders by text message. One demanded: “You should be up now and dog muck cleaned get a move on.” Another, sent at night, read: “Its not time for bed until lights in house go out. Open door.”

Mr Brooke added: “The next door neighbour, James Cutts, would see Craig always in the back yard late at night, right up to midnight. He appeared never to be allowed in the house.”

In a victim impact statement Craig, who was adopted at 12 after an abusive childhood, told the court: “I was in constant fear of the Rooke family, ­especially David and Jamie. I felt as if they controlled me.

“I lived in such terrible conditions and was made to work such long hours for nothing.” Craig was finally freed after police were called to a disturbance at the Rookes’ home on July 6 last year. Officers spotted his injuries and he was taken to hospital where he told them the truth. Even then he said he had been assaulted because he stole food from the wheelie bin. Mr Brookes added: “He thought he deserved to be hit.”

Det Insp Vicky Short, who led the investigation, said the abuse “plumbed the depths of depravity”.

She added: “It has hard to understand how any human being could treat an ­individual in such a grotesque, callous and inhuman manner.

“I am confident if we had not received that phone call that day we would have been investigating a murder.”

David Rooke was jailed for six years and six months after admitting false imprisonment and assaults. Donna pleaded guilty to battery and was locked up for four months. Jamie, who admitted affray and assault, got four years.