A deviant who subjected a mentally disabled woman to years of captivity and sexual abuse has been jailed for 15 years.
A Svengali-like Keith Baker (61) raped his helpless victim during an ordeal lasting eight years while controlling the behaviour of his wife and another partner through a willingness to resort to violence and total immorality, a judge said.
She was kept as an invisible prisoner in a room at their filthy house of horrors in Craigavon, Co Armagh, with no light bulb and no door handle on the inside.
The toilet was overflowing with human excrement.
She was so badly emaciated most of her teeth had to be removed once she was rescued by police in 2012 after Baker's second partner raised the alarm.
The woman was kept in a squalid room in the Bakers' house
Judge Patrick Lynch QC said: "It is not easy to understand how these individuals have so lost their moral compass that they could subject an individual who clearly exhibited serious mental defects to mistreatment, in sexual terms depriving her of any dignity and even the most basic of living standards."
She did not appear on the electoral register, was not with a GP or dentist and never claimed benefits.
Neighbours did not even know the victim was there.
She went from being well-nourished to becoming emaciated, extremely thin with a distended abdomen.
Baker's wife Caroline (54) was also sentenced to three years in prison, half to be served in the community on licence.
Keith Baker slumped in a wheelchair outside the dock at Craigavon Crown Court. Caroline stood inside the box, with her head bowed throughout, even as she was led away in handcuffs by prison guards.
The room was kept in darkness with no electric lights
The judge said: "Mr Baker presented as a Svengali figure, exercising control on three women based on his dominance, willingness to resort to violence and total immorality."
Their victim was reported missing in Cambridge in England in 2004. She was taken to Northern Ireland by Baker, the judge said.
Once there she was subjected to the most horrific of ordeals, much of it filmed for Baker's sexual gratification, his target naked and unable to defend herself.
The judge said: "She lacked the capacity to make decisions and was regarded as a mentally disordered person and did not have capacity to consent to sex."
She did not even know Keith Baker's correct name.
At one stage she was told by the perpetrators that she had "learned quite a bit" over the last few years.
There was no handle on the door to the room in which the woman was kept
Keith Baker, whose address was given as prison, and Caroline Baker pleaded guilty to sexual activity involving penetration and causing a person with a mental disorder to engage in sexual activity.
Keith Baker was also charged with rape and indecent assault. Caroline Baker was charged with aiding and abetting rape and other sexual offences including indecent assault.
A total of eight children also lived in the house, along with another lady who was another partner to Keith Baker.
The judge said the household was "highly unorthodox" and the target of the abuse was totally isolated from the rest of society.
Her words when she was released from captivity were: "Yes, freedom."
When she was freed she did not want to be left alone in the room.
Police found a camera in the room
Judge Lynch added: "This is clearly indicative to me of the isolated existence she had led."
She ate everything in a hurry and was dehydrated.
Keith Baker had been raised in Guernsey and lived most of his life in Kent. He met his wife when they both worked for the Salvation Army.
He was assessed as displaying sexual deviancy and posing a high risk of re-offending, the judge said.
Caroline Baker played a "secondary" role, the judge added, influenced by her husband's domineering personality.
He said: "Caroline Baker was in a virtual state of marital captivity."
He said she was a pawn under the influence of a very powerful and dominating Mr Baker, also a victim of exploitation and emotional control by her husband.
Keith Baker was sentenced to 15 years in prison
Addressing Mrs Baker, the judge said: "I still find it hard to understand how you could have so little empathy for your victim.
"You connived in treatment of your victim that reduced her to a state of emaciation, no medical treatment or dental treatment.
"Her living conditions were a disgrace. She was under-fed.
"None of this was necessary."
Detective Chief Superintendent George Clarke, head of the PSNI's public protection branch, said it was an appalling litany of crimes carried out against an extremely vulnerable woman.
"This was an inhumane way to treat anyone.
"Her basic human rights were stolen from her by people who can only be described as evil.
"What she went through is unimaginable and any right-minded person will be horrified to hear about the suffering this victim endured at the hands of these cruel people.
"It doesn't bear thinking about what this victim endured over the thousands of days she was kept prisoner."
