A scratch card addict dubbed ‘The Witch’ who kept a vulnerable woman imprisoned  as a house slave for 25 years has been jailed. 

Amanda Wixon, 56, a former cleaner and volunteer at Tewkesbury Abbey, kept the woman in a filthy, mouldy room, restricted food and beat her if she failed to complete jobs around the house. 

The victim, who cannot be named, was denied washing facilities and medical care and forced to clean extensively, often on her knees. 

She also had washing-up liquid squirted down her throat, bleach splashed on her face and her head repeatedly shaved against her will. 

Describing her ordeal in court on Thursday ahead of Wixon’s sentencing, the woman, now 42, told how she had ‘lost 25 years’ of her life. 

In a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecutor Sam Jones, the victim, who has learning difficulties, told how the ‘trauma and the nightmares’ were something she carried with her every day.

‘I am now living with a wonderful family who show me kindness, patience and support,’ she said. 

‘Their love is helping me slowly rebuild the life that was taken from me and begin to feel safe again.

‘Nothing can give me back the 25 years I lost.

‘But I hope the court recognises the deep and lasting harm this abuse has caused and delivers a sentence that truly reflects the seriousness of these crimes.’

The woman was aged 16 when Wixon moved her into her home in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, in the mid-1990s under the guise of caring for her. 

But Wixson ‘almost immediately’ took her to the benefits office to make sure her benefits were paid directly to her. 

Police estimate she took almost £100,000 – around £400 a week – which was intended for the victim but never spent on her. 

By the time she was rescued by police in 2021 following a tip off, the woman had no teeth – either having rotted or been knocked out after she was assaulted with a broom handle. 

A police officer who found her said she smelt heavily of body odour, even from two metres away, was malnourished, timid and frightened.

There are now calls for social services to explain how the victim slipped through the net.

Neighbours claim they reported their concerns in the early 2000s, and again in 2018. Social services were involved with the family in the late 1990s but there were no records of any contact since then.

After Wixon was jailed for 13 years, the woman’s new foster carer called for an inquiry into why she was not discovered sooner.

She said: ‘It’s just a horrible situation which should never have happened. I think social services should be more alert and then maybe no one else will go through what she has been through.’

Amanda Wixon pictured arriving at Gloucester Crown Court for sentencing after being found guilty in January of human slavery offences

The room where the victim slept at Amanda Wixon’s home in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

Wixon made no comment when she arrived at court and was asked if she would like to apologise to her victim 

In a case described as ‘Dickensian’ by the judge, she was beaten and kicked regularly by Wixon and on several occasions thrown down the stairs.

On one occasion, Wixon held her head down the toilet while she flushed the chain.

The victim was initially allowed out of the house and neighbours remember seeing her, but when she was later shut indoors, Wixon told people she had moved to Scotland with a boyfriend to account for her disappearance. 

In notes to herself, K wrote about dreaming of seeing sunshine again.

Wixon, who has 10 children of her own, was found guilty in January of false imprisonment, two charges of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, and four charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm following a trial..

The court heard how after moving into Wixon’s home, the woman had effectively ‘disappeared’ from society. 

Secret voice notes made by the victim reveal she longed to go outside and walk the family dog Marley but had bin liners put up against the window so she could not even see outside. 

Wixon, in a denim jacket and scarf sat with her arms folded and showed no emotion as she was sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court on Thursday.

The victim, now aged 42, watched proceedings via a video link from the court next door. 

She cried several times and had to leave the room for several minutes as details of her life with Wixson were outlined.

Passing sentence Judge Ian Lawrie KC said Wixon was in ‘permanent denial’ about the impact of her offending on the woman, idenitified as ‘K’.

‘The gravity of your offending is so serious that I am imposing a significant period of custody,’ the judge said.

‘You are to be punished for a series of offences spanning 20 years. 

‘You cruelly and persistently held captive this woman. This false imprisonment ran from her later teens until early 40s.

‘The enduring persistent trauma of that slavery remains. This offending was not isolated and was persistent over many years.’

The semi-detached home in Tewkesbury where the victim was held by Wixon for 25 years

Amanda Wixon in a video taken by police at the time of her arrest at her home in 2021 

Bodycam footage issued by Gloucestershire Constabulary of Wixon being interviewed by officers

The judge said that Wixon could not plead ignorance about K’s learning disabilities or vulnerabilities.

He said it is clear how ’emotionally and psychologically vulnerable’ K is.

‘You can’t plead ignorance about her condition or her vulnerability… you effectively crushed her spirit,’ he said.

‘Firstly, K was effectively your servant, your slave and carried out domestic work in your own.

‘Secondly, it’s clear to me that you taking K into your care was opportunistic for claiming her benefits.’

He added that K now requires 24-hour care in the long-term, due to the neglect and psychological abuse she suffered.

Edward Hollingsworth, in mitigation for Wixon, said there was no question of the harm K experienced her hands. But said she should be considered as ‘somewhat vulnerable in her own right’.

‘She received limited education… she presents, in my submission, as someone with relatively low intellectuality,’ he said.

Mr Hollingsworth added the offences were ‘heartless, but not sophisticated’.

Wixon’s first husband and father of seven of her 10 children is an alcoholic, and her current husband has learning difficulties, Hollingsworth added.

A number of her children also have their own vulnerabilities.

‘Your honour will also recall the messy neglected appearance of her home and of her own appearance,’ Hollingsworth added, asking the judge to note her ‘lack of any teeth’.

Since being rescued, she is now living with a foster family, attending college and has been on holiday.

Ian Fletcher, detective superintendent at Gloucestershire police, said the victim had been drawing, writing poetry and taking walks in the sunshine.

‘She is now living a better life,’ he said, ‘but she is still suffering quite badly, she has flashbacks. 

‘She is doing much better, she has got a caring environment behind her but she will suffer for the rest of her life. She has severe psychological trauma.’

He said she had managed to keep K captive so long because she was ‘manipulative and controlling’ towards her own family. 

Wixon still denies she has done anything wrong, and has shown no remorse for her actions, he said.

K told police that sometimes Wixon’s children would sneak her biscuits, but if she was caught eating them, she would get a beating.

‘I think we believe that Wixon was very, very manipulative over her own family and over her own husband and her own children.

‘Ultimately, it was one of Wixon’s children actually reported this to the police, so down the line they have finally come through,’ Fletcher added.

Rachael Scott of the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘The victim in this case was subjected to decades of torment, exploitation and control. She was denied her freedom, made to live in appalling physical and emotional conditions, and forced to act at the whim of the woman who imprisoned her.

‘Over the years of captivity, which she was only able to track by the passing of each Christmas, she was left to live off the crumbs that Wixon provided, while suffering unimaginable abuse and experiencing no acts of kindness at all.

‘Despite all of this, the progress she has made since finding freedom is remarkable and a true testament to her strength.

‘Our thoughts remain with her, and I hope that today’s sentence brings her some comfort as she continues to rebuild her life.’