A SCIENTIST at one of the world's leading medical research institutions smuggled a young woman from Africa to work in the UK as her house slave, a court heard yesterday (Aug 1).

Rebecca Balira, aged 45, of Waterside Close, Thamesmead, forced 21-year-old Methodia Mathias to cook, clean and wash for her while acting a nanny to her three children for six months without pay, jurors heard.

The young Tanzanian was made to share a bed with Balira's 12-year-old son, stripped of her passport and banned from contacting her family or friends, it was said.

Southwark Crown Court was told she was forced to walk to and from church each Sunday while Balira and her children took the bus.

Jurors were also told Ms Mathias was slapped and punched by Balira and had her bra cut off her with a pair of scissors after her employer flew into a rage over a money box.

Her six-month ordeal only ended when Ms Mathias told the one friend she had in this country about her mistreatment and police were called in to investigate.

Prosecutor Caroline Haughey told the court how Balira had offered Ms Mathias 250,000 Tanzanian shillings a month - around £96 - to work as her housekeeper.

She said Balira, who has a 15-year association with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, arranged for her visa and paid for her flights from Dar-Es-Salaam to London.

After arriving in February 2010, Ms Mathias was taken to live in the two bedroom flat in Thamesmead, where Balira shared a bedroom with her three children while sub-letting the second bedroom.

Ms Haughey said: "When you think of slavery you may think of cotton pickers in Georgia, in the southern states of America, or the slave trade in Africa, or the sex slave trade in this jurisdiction.

"But what we are dealing with is Mrs Balira keeping Ms Mathias as a young woman who was effectively bound to her with no freedom of movement and no freedom of choice.

"What we say is Rebecca Balira kept Methodia Mathias, a young, Tanzanian, 21-year-old girl, in conditions that were such that they were tantamount to slavery and servitude.

"That is she was kept effectively without pay – she did not receive a single penny for her work – in conditions were she was deprived of money, she was deprived of her passport, working long hours in conditions which were unacceptable and are unacceptable.

"She was forced to share a bed with another person, abused both verbally and psychologically and not allowed to communicate with her family.

"She was in fact kept at the whim and behest of Rebecca Balira."

Ms Haughey told the court that Ms Mathias was required to get up at 5am and often did not go to bed until 11.30pm or midnight.

Balira denies trafficking a person into the UK for exploitation, knowingly holding another in servitude and two counts of common assault.

The trial continues.