A BULLIED domestic worker attacked by her employer and kept in slave-like conditions has won compensation from a police force.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sued Hertfordshire Police for failing under the Human Rights Act to both protect her from abuse and properly investigate her allegations of cruelty and violence when she once managed to escape from the home of one of her abusers, optician Mrs Shashi Obhrai, 54, of Pembroke Street, Northwood.

The mother-of-four, who left her family to come to the UK in 2005 on a visa following promises of work as a nanny, lodged a civil claim after her attackers, from three different households, were convicted and sentenced at Croydon Crown Court earlier this year.

Hertfordshire Constabulary paid an undisclosed amount of compensation and sent an apology from Assistant Chief Constable Andy Adams that said: “I am writing to convey my sincere apologies for Hertfordshire Constabulary’s failures in relation to your allegations of forced domestic labour made in 2008.

“You were a vulnerable victim of a serious crime. I acknowledge that we failed to protect you from the risk of being subjected to forced labour by Mrs Obhrai when you reported your treatment to us in March 2008.

“I also acknowledge that we failed to investigate your allegations promptly, resulting in a considerable delay in bringing your abusers to justice.

“I am very sorry for the distress this must have caused you.”

Mrs Obhrai was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm and threats to kill, and received a 20-month suspended jail sentence.

The court heard how Mrs Obhrai had forced her victim to sleep on the kitchen floor and live off scraps of food from her children’s leftovers.

She burnt her with an iron and threatened to hurt her with insulin needles.

She also hit the victim over the head with a rolling pin and dragged her down the stairs by her hair.

The victim also worked for Aleemuddin Mohammed, 35, from Harrow, and his then-wife secretary Shamina Yousuf.

Yousuf was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm for throwing a mug at the woman, causing a two-inch gash on the foot, and was sentenced to 40 hours’ unpaid work.

Mr Mohammed was acquitted by the jury of sexual assault and acquitted on the judge’s direction of trafficking the woman to the UK.

Later employer Enkarta Balapovi, 54, from St Johns Wood, was jailed for 11 years after being convicted of five counts of rape. Balapovi’s wife Shanaz Begum, 57, of the same address, was cleared of trafficking offences on the directions of the judge.

Corinna Ferguson, legal officer at human rights organisation, Liberty, said: “It is appalling that the police initially refused to believe this vulnerable, isolated woman, handing her back to her abusers.

“The welcome recognition of such failings is the very least she deserves and we hope it means that lessons have been learned for the future.”