Naked slave case

When poor Veronica Sandeman, 26, finally escaped her prison, a neighbour described her as "skeletal" and "beaten to within an inch of her life".

Evil mother-of-six Pearson-Gaballonie dragged her husband, Neil Pearson down with her to prison following her campaign of pain and humiliation against Miss Sandeman. He was sentenced to two years for his part. Now Judge Paul Hoffman, at York Crown Court, has finally ensured she will stay behind bars, sentencing her to seven years in prison for causing actual bodily harm, false imprisonment and making threats to kill.

Judge Hoffman said: "How one person can behave to another with such cruelty is very hard to contemplate, but you did."

Jail for evil slavemaster'

SHE was cunning and prepared to go to any lengths to get what she wanted but today the woman who turned her sister-in-law into a battered, bruised and naked slave is starting seven years in jail.

Domineering and brutal Antonia Esna Pearson-Gaballonie, 35, dragged her husband Neil Pearson down with her to prison following her campaign of pain and humiliation against Veronica Sandeman.

For more than a year she had tried to evade justice for her crimes by getting her trial delayed on one excuse after another, including an apparent suicide bid and overdosing herself on medication prescribed for stress problems she claimed she was having.

But in September, the trial finally went ahead without her and the jury convicted her of six charges of causing actual bodily harm, one of false imprisonment and one making threats to kill. As she starts her long stay behind bars, she faces the break-up of her family and the loss of her family's home in New Lane.

"You are manipulative and cunning enough to go to great lengths on occasions to achieve your purpose," the Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman told her.

About the months of hell endured by Miss Sandeman, he said: "How one person can behave to another with such cruelty is very hard to contemplate, but you did."

He said the younger woman's devotion and love of Pearson-Gaballonie's six children had kept herfrom making her escape months before she fled to a friend's house in an emaciated state, wearing no underwear and men's clothes that dwarfed her. Pearson-Gaballonie had confiscated her clothes.

If at first you don't succeed...

Antonia Esna Pearson-Gaballonie initially refused to leave her cell to go into the dock in Courtroom One.

Judge Paul Hoffman said the case should start anyway. A member of the defence team left court to speak to her and minutes later she appeared in the dock.

She shook her head at times during the hearing and as the judge passed sentence she cried and appeared to collapse. But two dock officers stood her up again. She called out hysterically as she was taken back to the cells.

Her barrister, Geraldine Kelly, said Pearson-Gaballonie still denied committing the crimes against Veronica Sandeman.

She had endured a very difficult year. In particular, she had been attacked, said the barrister.

"It causes her so much distress she attempted to take her own life.

"She has been affected by nightmares and is unable to sleep."

The court heard Pearson-Gaballonie had never been in prison before, but had used her time on remand since the trial to take courses in business studies and computers, partly to help herself in the future and partly to keep her mind occupied and not dwelling on events in the past.

Pearson-Gaballonie was concerned about the future of her children, in particular two who are to live with their natural father, her previous husband, Stephen Sandeman.

"She is not concerned for herself," the barrister said.

A probation officer had assessed her as a "low risk" of reoffending. The judge read pre-sentence and psychiatric reports on her.

Police praise victim

Detective Inspector Mick Moore of North Yorkshire Police, said: "At the end of this extremely long legal process I want to pay tribute to the victim in this horrendous case. She has shown enormous courage and determination throughout, and I hope today's sentence may bring some degree of closure for her.

"The sentence reflects the seriousness of Gaballonie's crimes, but brings little pleasure to anyone at the end of this cruel and distressing chapter - there are no winners here."

A CPS spokesperson said: "The CPS and North Yorkshire Police have faced many obstacles in bringing this case to trial, but this was an appalling case of systematic abuse and we were determined to follow it through and secure a conviction."

Eviction notice served on family home

Simon Kealey, for Neil Pearson, said that the housing association which owns the house where the crimes took place, had served an eviction notice on the family in New Lane, Holgate, York. They had to leave by Thursday.

Before his trial, Pearson believed the house was owned in trust for the children. But then he learnt that it was rented and had rent arrears.

After his wife was remanded in custody, Pearson had given up his job at a car dealership to care for her six children. The court was told he was a caring father who, with his parents, would continue to look after his one child by Pearson-Gaballonie.

After the trial, he had been suspended from his second job as a doorman, which he had held for years without any complaints. A probation officer assessed him as "low-risk". The barrister handed in four references for Pearson.

Andrew Kershaw, for the prosecution, said social workers had arranged homes for the three children not going to relatives.

A City of York Council spokesperson said: "We are working with the family to ensure that suitable arrangements for their care are prioritised."

Timeline

• 1997: Veronica Sandeman becomes a "nanny" to Antonia Pearson-Gaballonie's children in York
• 2001: Family moves to Acomb. Veronica's brother posted to Wiltshire. His wife, Pearson-Gaballonie, refuses to move and starts new relationship
• December, 2002: First crimes against Veronica start
• October, 2003: Beatings increase
• June, 2004: Pearson-Gaballonie and Pearson marry.

• About November, 2004: Pearson-Gaballonie confiscates Veronica's clothes. Beatings continue
• December 25, 2004: Pearson-Gaballonie, assisted by Pearson, attacks Veronica with scissors. Pearson-Gaballonie also threatens to kill Veronica
• December 28, 2004: Veronica flees. Police informed
• April 8, 2005: Husband and wife's first appearance before crown court
• August 22, 2005: First trial date - postponed
• December 7, 2005: Second trial date postponed because Pearson-Gaballonie claims she is pregnant. When ordered by the court to undergo a CT scan claims she has had a miscarriage
• Mid-July, 2006: Pearson-Gaballonie asks for trial scheduled for July 31 to be postponed on the grounds she can't get child care during school holidays. Judge says social services will arrange cover. Trial date remains
• July 28, 2006: Pearson-Gaballonie asks for trial to be postponed on the grounds she has suffered a serious attack. Trial delayed by two days
• July 31, 2006: Judge Paul Hoffman says he will sign a warrant if Pearson-Gaballonie not in court on August 2. Pearson-Gaballonie goes to doctor and is prescribed diazepam
• August 2, 2006: Pearson-Gaballonie arrives at court almost asleep after taking too many diazepam tablets. Collapses in the dock. Tells hospital staff collapse due to Addison's Disease. Trial delayed
• September 3, 2006: Pearson-Gaballonie takes overdose
• September 4, 2006: Judge decides she is deliberately avoiding coming to court. Trial starts of her and Pearson.

• September 8, 2006: Jury convict both. Pearson-Gaballonie arrested on warrant and remanded in custody
• November 6, 2006: Pearson-Gaballonie jailed for seven years, Pearson for two.

The sentence

NAKED slave Veronica Sandeman endured her horrific ordeal for the sake of the children she cared for.

The 26-year-old told in an interview last month how she was forced to clean while naked, made to eat dog food, whipped with a belt and beaten with a rolling pin.

The York nanny spoke of the unimaginable ordeal she suffered at the hands of her own sister-in-law, and explained why she endured it for so long without speaking out.

Antonia Pearson-Gaballonie, 35, of New Lane, Holgate, York, was jailed for seven years for inflicting years of abuse on Veronica, who was nanny to her six children.

Veronica said she felt too close to the children to leave when her brother Stephen's marriage to Pearson-Gaballonie broke down.

"I had bonded so much with the kids," she said. "I wanted to protect them from the upheaval of the split-up."

But three months later the violence began.

Veronica said: "At first she was slapping and punching me, maybe losing her temper once a week.

"But within a year, I was taking beatings three times a week, then every day. I was too scared to hit back."

Then Pearson-Gaballonie started beating her with weapons, including a studded leather belt.

"Her favourite was one of those old fashioned wooden rolling pins. She split my face open one day, but wouldn't let me see a doctor," Veronica said.

"The obvious question people ask is why didn't I walk out.

"The truth is I didn't think anyone would believe me.

"My self-esteem hit rock bottom.

"I began believing I was actually causing Toni to behave this way and it was my fault.

"And I couldn't just walk out and leave the children with this monster.

"All the attacks were when they went to bed and I thought that if I wasn't there, I feared she would start attacking them instead," she told a Sunday newspaper.

Veronica said her ordeal worsened when Pearson-Gaballonie met nightclub doorman Neil Pearson.

"She made me walk round naked, cleaning and scrubbing in just a pair of old black shoes," she said. I was a prisoner in the house all day - naked, even in front of Neil.

"He's a big guy, but he didn't say a thing - I think he was scared of her too."

Pearson-Gaballonie would cook dog biscuits and dog meat in curry sauce and force Veronica to eat it.

"I would be sick as she was making me eat it, but she just laughed," she said.

But on Christmas Day the abuse got worse.

Veronica said: "She was swearing and screaming as she dragged me into her bedroom, knocked me to the floor and made me strip naked.

"She told Neil to pin my arms to the floor, got a pair of scissors and started cutting off chunks of my hair.

"There was blood streaming down my face and neck where she'd cut me with the scissors. She pulled me into the kitchen and started beating me with the rolling pin and leather belt before holding a bread knife to my throat.

"She knocked me to the floor and kept banging my head off the tiles."

A few days later Veronica was sent out - naked - to clean the freezing cold garage, but she discovered a bag of Neil's old clothes.

She put them on and ran to a neighbour who called the police, and for the first time her brother discovered what had happened.

Veronica said: "He was speechless with rage.

"At first, he couldn't understand why I never told him so he could stop it."

Veronica described Pearson-Gaballonie as an "evil woman" who is "mentally unbalanced".

Veronica is now rebuilding her life in Scotland, where she is studying art at college.

She has a partner and gave birth to her first child four months ago.

What the neighbour saw

Neighbour Amanda Palmer, whose home Miss Sandeman fled to after the attack, said: "I was cooking dinner at the time and she turned up on my back doorstep and said she had just escaped from her attacker."

She said Miss Sandeman was an "absolute wreck" who looked "skeletal" with her skin "hanging from her frame" when she arrived at her door.

Mrs Palmer, speaking outside court, said: "She had been beaten to within an inch of her life.

"It was horrific. I had never seen a young woman of that age look like that. She was skeletal. I did the only thing anyone in that situation could do - I called the police."

Mrs Palmer said Miss Sandeman was now "rebuilding her life as best she can".

One neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "I think most people round here are pleased with the sentence. She deserves it but she should have got more. Everyone is disgusted by what she did. How long will it be before is out again?"

Another neighbour added: "They were known round here as the family from hell. It's the little ones I feel very, very sorry for because they've had to see all of that and now their mum is in jail."