Tom Somerset-How shares he was enslaved by wife and carer
Tom Somerset-How was isolated from his family, kept in dirty conditions and deprived of food by his wife Sarah Somerset-How and his live-in carer George Webb.
Tom has cerebral palsy and needs 24-hour care, and living on a diet of crisps until he was just 6st 10lbs, Sarah and George would often leave him on his own all day whilst they went out.
Joining This Morning presenters Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, Tom and his sister Holby City star Kate Somerset-Holmes the pair spoke of the ordeal.
Discussing George and Sarah’s intentions and how they managed to deceive everyone around them, Tom expressed: “To start with they were saying ‘we can’t do this, we can’t do that’.
“In mid-2016, he [George] started saying that I couldn’t have friends over and that he would take me out and eventually he just stopped doing what he should have been doing as a carer.
“I knew there was something going on but I didn’t know for sure but when you hear things and you think ‘It’s 2am, so maybe it’s just me reading too much into it’.
“But when you look at how they were together around the house, you know yeah there is something going on here.”
Kate added that it was a “slow” and “insidious” process for the family to realise what was happening to Tom.
Sarah and George cleverly excused themselves from the house whenever family suggested on visiting the house and would often meet them outside the house.
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Tom’s devices were also taken from him, meaning Kate and the family had limited contact with him.
Discussing what he wanted people to take from his experience, Tom said: “There needs to be some structure where social services can circumvent that first line of defence to get through to the person.”
Sarah and George were charged on Friday, May 12, under the modern slavery legislation and found guilty of holding a person in slavery or servitude. The pair will be sentenced at a later date.
Viewers were left horrified for Tom and took to Twitter to give their sympathies and congratulations that Sarah and George were found guilty of their crimes.
Traylor Holmes penned: “Bless Tom, what a lovely man. Horrific what those b******s did to him. Hope they get the book thrown at them #ThisMorning.”
Steve Lowe expressed: “Tom, you have our undying respect. God bless you. #ThisMorning.”
Andrea Brown said: “Poor Tom absolutely shocking care he received, there is so evil people. This could happen to anyone #ThisMorning.”
Michaela Hoskins praised: “Tom Somerset….what an incredible, strong person you are #ThisMorning #TomSomerset.”
@uzziOb noted: “This is heartbreaking. Evil people. #ThisMorning.”
@FlopsyPickle added: “I read about this case the other day, awful. Being disabled makes you feel really vulnerable & helpless, the one person you’d expect to not worsen that would be your wife, absolutely sickening #ThisMorning.” (sic)
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV.
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