Ugandan High Court Judge Lydia Mugambe. Photo/COURSTEY
The Crown Court at Oxford in the United Kingdom on Friday handed down a six-years and four-months jail term to Ugandan High Court judge Lydia Mugambe for luring a Ugandan woman into the UK to work for her as a slave.
Presiding judge David Foxton had earlier in March found Justice Mugambe, 50, guilty of four offences including conspiracy to do an act to facilitate the breach of UK immigration law by a non-UK national, arranging or facilitating the travel of the complainant with a view to exploitation, requiring the complainant to perform forced or compulsory labour, contrary to Section 1(1)(b) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and conspiracy to intimidate a witness.
Justice Foxton said her legal run-ins began in 2020, when she won a scholarship to further her interest in human rights law by undertaking a PhD at Oxford University.
Under the conspiracy to facilitate the breach of UK immigration by a non-UK national offence, the judge held that this involved a premeditated and carefully planned agreement to breach the UK immigration laws through the creation and deployment of false documentation by Justice Mugambe.
“You arrived in the UK to continue your studies in person in May 2021, and in September 2021, you were joined by your three children. That welcome reuniting of your family brought with it the challenge of reconciling the demands of parenting and running a home alongside your commitments as a postgraduate student, and as a judge of the United Nations, in which role you were expected to undertake a number of overseas workshops,” Justice Foxon noted.
He added: “However, sympathetic one might be to the difficulties of managing these competing demands on your time, it is impossible to condone or excuse the criminal means by which you set about securing help. You had met the victim in Uganda when she was 19 years old and experiencing considerable hardship. You provided the victim with employment and accommodation as a nanny and maid in Uganda, as well as supporting her in her studies. You decided to bring the victim to the United Kingdom to act as the children’s live-in nanny and your maid, while you were completing your course.”
Justice Foxon said Justice Mugambe had no legal right as the holder of a Tier 4 student visa to sponsor anyone to come and work for her in the UK.
“You initially planned to bring the victim to the UK on a tourist visa. However, a fateful encounter with the Deputy High Commissioner of the Republic of Uganda, John Leanord Mugerwa, at a reception held by the High Commission for Ugandan students studying in the UK on March 20, 2022, led you to embark on a serious breach of the UK immigration laws, through the use of a thoroughly dishonest scheme,” he observed.
“In short, you agreed with Mr Mugerwa that he would sponsor the victim’s visa under a special immigration scheme for personal servants of accredited diplomats, on the basis that the victim would take up a job as Mr Mugerwa’s housekeeper, and live with him. However, there was no such job. The intention all along was that, once she arrived in the UK, the victim would live in your house and work for you as your nanny and maid, and you paid the necessary fees for the visa. To assist in this dishonest scheme, you and Mr Mugerwa worked together to produce a false contract of employment between the High Commission and the victim, giving particulars of a job which did not exist, and intending that this document and a similarly false Certificate of Sponsorship from Mr Mugerwa for the non-existent job would be used to obtain a visa for the victim,” the UK judge added.
In return for the favour that Mr Mugerwa had offered her, Justice Mugambe would help him out with a case in Uganda in which he was the defendant by speaking to the judge handling it.
“You made a number of attempts to do so. To her credit, the judge who you tried to contact refused to take your calls. Not only did you engage in a dishonest conspiracy with Mr Mugerwa to obtain a UK visa for the victim on a false basis, but you brought the victim to the UK intending to force her to work for you, under the threat of a penalty if the victim did not do what you wanted. You did not intend to pay the victim for her work for you in the UK, as you had in Uganda, and you did not do so,” held the judge.
Justice Foxton said he was to treat offence two of arranging or facilitating the travel of the victim to the UK as the lead offence that attracts a minimum sentence of six years.
He said there were no offence-specific mitigating factors which could justify the reduction of the sentence below six years.
Under count four of conspiracy to intimidate a witness, Justice Foxton said when Justice Mugambe was bailed out last year by the police, it was on condition that she was not to contact the victim at all whether directly or indirectly, which condition he she did heed to.
The UK judge said two electronic devices were seized from her, and messages recovered from them showed that Justice Mugambe, with the help of her niece and personal assistant and other associates tried to contact the victim through her pastor back in Uganda and also through her mother to try to convince her not to give evidence against her, citing loss of interest in the case.
“These events reflected a conspiracy between you, Ms Serugga and your researcher to try and contact the victim through your niece, the victim’s mother and her pastor, in an effort to intimidate the victim so that she would not give evidence against you. This is a serious offence, and as a judge you must have been fully alive to the criminal nature of this conduct. I am satisfied that this offence was one of high culpability. There was a breach of a bail condition imposed to protect the victim, who was obviously vulnerable,” he said.
He added: “The facts giving rise to the offence involved sophisticated and planned conduct, in which you involved two other people, using various routes to contact the victim for the purpose of pressurising her into not giving evidence against you – direct contact, contact through the victim’s family and contact through the victim’s pastor.”
Justice Foxton said this contributed to the feelings of anxiety and isolation that the victim describes in her personal statement, including the fact that she now feels cut off from her pastor and that she has become suspicious that those seeking to contact her may be doing so at Justice Mugambe’s instigation.
The UK judge also noted that Justice Mugambe was not remorseful for her conduct but instead continued to wholly unjustifiably depict herself as the victim of these events, and “falsely blame the real victim for your wrongdoing”.
Justice Foxton, however, recognised Justice Mugambe’s role as the primary carer of her three children and how a longer jail sentence would impact on them.
“I have carefully considered the report of Dr Aisha Ali, a chartered psychologist, and the statement of Marion Nyina Nadwula, who is currently looking after your children, and who describes herself as a psychiatric health professional. Your eldest child is currently in the sixth form, your middle child is 16 years old, and your youngest child of eight. I accept that your absence has had and will continue to have significant adverse effects on their wellbeing, and has led to a marked change in their outlook and demeanour,” the judge observed.
He added: “That effect has, perhaps, been most acute on your youngest child, who is experiencing certain difficulties. Your middle child, Page has become withdrawn, and your eldest child has also clearly been impacted. I accept that prolonged separation risks inculcating feelings of abandonment in the children, and that those adverse effects and the trauma experienced by your children are likely to be more profound, the longer the period of imprisonment is.”
The judge also noted that the challenges Justice Mugambe was going through had also negatively impacted on her mental health and that she was suffering from anxiety and panic disorder.
“Dr Ai has diagnosed that you are suffering from generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder, major depressive disorder and prolonged grief disorder, the latter following the death of your mother in August 2022 and your father the following year. In particular, it is clear that your continuing separation from and anxiety about your children has had a significant adverse impact on your mental wellbeing,” he held
He added: “Taking all of these matters into account, and making full allowance for the personal mitigation I have referred to, I have decided that the lowest sentence which I can impose which is commensurate with the seriousness of your offending is one of six years and four months imprisonment. This will be reflected in individual sentences for the four offences as follows: (1) A sentence five years and six months imprisonment on Count 2, with concurrent sentences of 18 months and three years respectively on Counts 1 and 3. (2) A consecutive sentence of 10 months’ imprisonment on Count 4. 44. You will serve up to one half of the total sentence of six years and four months in custody.”
The judge went on to make a compensation order that requires her to pay £12,160 (Shs58.9m) within a period of six months from Friday.
Moments before the court could sit, a section of Ugandans living in the UK, protested outside the court, carrying placards showing their dissatisfaction with the conviction of Justice Mugambe, arguing that the case is an "asylum scam" and not that of "domestic slavery".
"Free Lydia Mugambe, free Lydia Mugambe, justice for Lydia..." the Ugandans were heard chanting outside the courtroom.
Some had placards with words inscribed on them such as "Ugandan community together we stand and support Lydia Mugambe," "condemnation without a full cultural context equals to injustice and unfairness", wake up Britain, African judge deserves justice too", "Judge Lydia deserves fairness, not rush to judgment", "who is exploiting who in this case", and Lydia Mugambe is a descent community head, not a criminal."
