the times | Wednesday January 19 2022 2GM 11
News
A married British Army instructor has
been sacked and is in danger of depor-
tation for granting female trainees
privileges in return for sexual “favours”.
He told one he would pay for her take-
away if she let him squeeze her bottom.
Bombardier Elan Joseph, 36, bought
“impressionable” young recruits
bottles of vodka and Southern Com-
fort. He was found guilty of telling one
to “get up and walk” so he could “look at
[her] arse” in her pyjamas.
MI5 investigated the British synagogue
attacker in 2020 after he spent six
months in Pakistan.
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, from
Blackburn, flew back to Britain on
September 11 that year, and a “lead in-
vestigation” lasting at least four weeks
began soon afterwards.
The nature of the intelligence that
prompted the inquiry is unclear, but
travellers who arouse suspicion may be
subjected to port stops on arrival and
the contents of their phones are rou-
tinely downloaded.
Whitehall sources confirmed that
Akram’s case was closed after MI
officers concluded he posed no terrorist
threat. Akram was therefore not
flagged to the US authorities before he
travelled to New York late last month,
bought a handgun and took four
hostages in a synagogue in Colleyville,
Texas, on Saturday. He held them for 11
hours before the FBI stormed the build-
ing and shot him dead.
His family have asked why he was not
blocked, given that he had a criminal
record for offences including violence.
Investigators believe that Akram lied
on his tourist visa waiver, which re-
quires offences to be declared. Jen
Psaki, the White House press secretary,
said Akram was checked against US
government databases but there was no
“derogatory information”.
She said the incident was being re-
viewed so that the government might
diqui, who is serving an 86-year sen-
tence for trying to kill US soldiers in
Afghanistan, is in prison in Fort Worth,
Texas.
In Jandala he was understood to be a
member of Tablighi Jamaat, a mission-
ary organisation that promotes an
ultra-conservative interpretation of
Islam. Associates in Blackburn said
Akram, who was estranged from his
wife, had become increasingly religious
and distanced himself from his six
children and other family members.
Akram had mental health problems
and had stayed at shelters for theBombardier offered recruits takeaway food for a grope
Larisa Brown Defence Editor Joseph, an instructor at the Larkhill
Royal School of Artillery near Salis-
bury, “crossed the line” by handing his
phone number to female trainees and
collecting takeaways for them, the
court martial was told. He was accused
of 13 charges relating to five female re-
cruits. He pleaded guilty to nine, was
convicted of two more and was acquit-
ted of two at Bulford military court.
The married father of two, originally
from the Caribbean island of St Vin-
cent, had served in the forces for more
than 13 years. He was dismissed from
the army and given an 18-month com-
munity order.
Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor
told Joseph: “Initial training starts the
recruits on their army career, so it is
essential it remains balanced and im-
partial. In this case the recruits were
young and female, and young recruits
are impressionable.”
The judge added: “There were sexual
connotations in your behaviour. We
understand that the sentence will put
you and your family at risk of deporta-
tion [to St Vincent], but your behaviourwas such that you cannot remain in the
service and must be dismissed.”
Rupert Gregory, for the prosecution,
told the sentencing hearing: “The mat-
ters Bombardier Joseph is convicted of
are fairly self-explanatory. Giving out
his telephone number; collecting take-
away food and offering to squeeze [a
trainee’s] ‘arse’ in lieu of payment ... and
taking [a recruit] off camp when she
was not allowed.
“He also sent a text message to a
trainee of Traveller or Gypsy heritage
saying, ‘If I grab you by the hair that willmake you mine’, a custom in Traveller
heritage.”
Tom Wilkins, for the defence, had
argued that Joseph, of the 19th Regi-
ment Royal Artillery, “has had an ex-
emplary service up until now. He has
two children and wishes to continue
serving in the Royal Artillery. His heart
is in the army.
“Bombardier Joseph could still pro-
vide valuable service and could be man-
aged in a role where he is not training
young recruits,” Wilkins added. “He
should be allowed to soldier on.”A man has pleaded guilty to exploiting
a vulnerable worker who was forced to
live in a six-foot shed for 40 years.
Peter Swailes, 56, from Cumbria,
changed his plea at Carlisle crown
court yesterday, having previously de-
nied conspiring to facilitate travel of
another with a view to exploitation. His
father, also called Peter Swailes, 80, was
accused of the same offence but he died
in September last year.
An officer from the Gangmasters and
Victim of modern slavery kept in squalid shed for 40 years
Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) said
that he had “never known a modern
slavery case where the exploitation has
taken place over such a long period.”
The charges came after a three-year
inquiry by the GLAA, aided by Cum-
bria police and the National Crime
Agency, after the victim was discovered
living in a 6ft shed on a residential site
north of Carlisle in October 2018.
The authority rescued the victim,
who was then 58, after a tip-off from a
confidential helpline.
Officers found that the man had beenliving in the shed, with a soiled duvet on
the floor and a metered TV. The shed
had no heating and just one window
which could not be fully closed, and the
victim lived in complete darkness when
the doors were shut, the hearing was
told.
The court was told that another shed
on the site that the family dog slept in
was in a far better state. The victim was
dishevelled and agitated as he revealed
to the officers that he had lived there for
40 years, the GLAA said.
The court was told that he was forcedto undertake work on farms from the
age of 16, painting, slating and tarmack-
ing and that he was paid just £10 a day.
On occasion, Swailes senior would
make contact and arrange for his son to
work with the man, the hearing was
told. However, Swailes junior accepted
that, on occasion, he paid the man he
had known for many years “less than
his minimum entitlement”.
A search warrant was executed at the
Hadrian’s Caravan Park near Carlisle
on October 3 and Peter Swailes senior
was arrested in his static caravan onsuspicion of offences under the Modern
Slavery Act 2015. When the GLAA told
him that he was under arrest, he said:
“Not all this slavery thing again.”
The victim received specialist help
and now lives in supported accommo-
dation.
Swailes, of Low Harker, Carlisle, was
bailed until sentencing on February 4.
The court was told how he changed
his plea on the agreed basis of his
“limited” involvement with the victim
and that he had not been aware of the
depravity of his living conditions.John Reynolds
homeless before the attack. Wayne
Walker, chief executive of Our Calling,
a support centre in Dallas, said Akram
had been dropped off there on Janu-
ary 2.
Mail Online reported that Akram
was once arrested at his home in Black-
burn because he would not let bailiffs
in. He was believed to have moved to
Manchester 18 months ago.
The FBI refused to comment. Akram
is believed to have acted alone. Two
teenagers arrested in Manchester in
connection with the siege were re-
leased last night without charge.MI5 concluded
Texas terrorist
was no threat
two years ago
“learn every possible lesson we can”.
The US authorities do not have ac-
cess to criminal record information
held on Britain’s police national com-
puter. They can request it via Interpol if
they have concerns about a person
applying to travel.
Akram’s criminal record included an
assault connected with a drug deal, vio-
lent disorder and driving offences. It is
understood that he had never been ar-
rested for terrorist offences.
He had once been banned from a
court for ranting about the September
11 attacks but was not on the Home
Office warnings index, the watchlist
that allows police at airports to inter-
cept passengers of concern. Whitehall
sources said that it would be “dispro-
portionate” for someone to be on the
list if they had been assessed as posing
no threat.
The sources said the 2020 investi-
gation had been closed before it pro-
gressed to a full-blown inquiry involv-
ing intrusive techniques such as eaves-
dropping.
Akram, whose father is from the vil-
lage of Jandala in northern Pakistan,
had travelled to the country twice that
year — for nearly three weeks in Janu-
ary and February and then between
March and September 11. He had been
to Pakistan on at least nine other occa-
sions since 2007.
Sources there said he had quarrelled
with his family in recent months and
“continuously” referred to Dr Aafia
Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist
known as “Lady al-Qaeda”. He spoke
about her during the Texas siege. Sid-Fiona Hamilton, Duncan Gardham,
Neil Johnston, Emma Yeomans,
Haroon Janjua, Keiran Southern
Professor who
‘used students
like servants’
wins claim
Jonathan Ames Legal EditorA university professor accused of “en-
slaving” students by forcing them to
accompany her when shopping for
underwear has won £15,000 after a
tribunal ruled she was unfairly sacked.
Professor Shuang Cang was investi-
gated by police for modern-day slavery
after two postgraduates alleged they
were “servants” to her.
However, the academic convinced an
employment tribunal that officials at
Northumbria University had wrongly
dismissed her for gross misconduct on
the basis of exaggerated claims.
The professor, originally from China,
who was based in the university’s busi-
ness and law faculty, was awarded
£15,000 in damages.
At a hearing in Newcastle, the tribu-
nal was told that two Chinese PhD stu-
dents claimed that Cang, 59, had forced
them to spend 12 hours cutting trees in
her garden, move heavy furniture, dis-
pose of her rubbish, pay for meals and
goods, paint rooms and clean her home.
The professor was also accused of de-
manding that the two students, both in
their thirties, be available to her 12
hours a day. One said he was “threaten-
ed and treated like a servant”.
The students said they feared they
would not be awarded their doctorates
if they did not comply with Cang’s
demands. The students also claimed
they were “coerced” to relocate with
Cang from Bournemouth University.
After they complained, Cang was re-
ported to the police, who later dropped
their investigation, and was then
sacked. However, Judge Tudor Garnon
ruled that the tribunal was not sure the
allegations were true. He added that
what Cang “accepted she had done was
no different from the way she behaved
at Bournemouth for years and in ac-
cordance with a culture she and the stu-
dents practised without complaint, not
only in China but in the UK”.Malik Akram at the homeless shelter in Dallas where he stayed before the attackOUR CALLING