British police have arrested a couple of suspicion of holding three "extremely traumatized" women captive for more than 30 years, CNN reported on Thursday. A 30-year-old "appears to have been in servitude for her entirely life," said Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland. She and two other women, a 57-year-old from Ireland and a 69-year-old from Malaysia, were taken to a place of safety, and are being cared for by a charity, CNN also reported.
The two abductors, a man and a woman who are both 67 "were taken into custody at the home in the south London borough of Lambeth and were being held as part of an investigation into slavery and domestic servitude, police said," as CNN reported.
"We've seen some cases where people have been held for up to 10 years, but we've never seen anything of this magnitude before," said Hyland.
"They are extremely traumatized, which explains the discrepancy between when the Freedom Charity were contacted and the arrests were made. It would be wrong of us to move at a pace that would further traumatize any victims," Hyland added.
Investigators have seen no evidence of sexual abuse, CNN reported.
"We're very early in the investigation. We're not investigating offenses of a sexual nature. There haven't been any arrests of a sexual nature, so that's the circumstances at the moment," Hyland also said.
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