A "VULNERABLE" man was forced to work every day for 13 years for no pay at a farm near Newport with just an animal trough to wash in at one point, Cardiff Crown Court heard yesterday.

Father and son Daniel Doran Sr, 67, and Daniel Doran Jr, 42, are accused of forcing Darrell Simester to look after their horses at the Cariad Farm in Peterstone.

Mr Simester, now 44, was afraid of the two defendants and on one occasion was told he would be buried in the back field, prosecutor John Hipkin claimed.

He told the jury his worried family in Kidderminster launched a missing person search for Mr Simester, described as a “timid” man by the prosecution, after his infrequent phone calls stopped altogether.

From 2000 he had phoned up to four times a year from a withheld number, but did not tell them where he was living, he said.

Mr Simester’s father said it sounded as if his son was being told what to say during some of the conversations, Mr Hipkin said.

His family and police eventually tracked him to the Cariad Farm, but at first his brother did not recognise him when he met the unkempt man working in the yard, the jury was told.

Over the years he had developed a hunchback, chest infection and a hernia on his groin so large it was visible through his trousers and was wearing ripped clothes.

Police asked where he had been living and he showed them a caravan, Mr Hipkin said. “It looked to a police officer that the caravan had simply been left to rot. The officer considered it unfit for human habitation.”

Mr Hipkin claimed Mr Simester was afraid of the two defendants: "He would, on occasion if he made a mistake in his work, have items thrown at him. On one occasion the second defendant, Daniel Jr, threw a spade at him which missed. This was done, the Crown say in the presence of Daniel Sr," Mr Hipkin said.

On one occasion when Mr Simester tried to leave he was brought back by Doran Jr, the court heard.

“The Crown say in short he was not truly free. He was shouted at regularly by both defendants. He was told he would be buried out the back, a reference to where the horses who had been shot were buried."

Mr Simester was kept in squalid conditions, Mr Hipkin said, told to wash in an animal trough and use a broken toilet which he had to flush with a pail of water and stick.

He worked from 7am until 9pm or 10pm every day for 13 years and was given tobacco, food once a day and a place to sleep but no pay.

“They didn’t pay him a penny,” Mr Hipkin said. “The shed where he slept was on occasion rat infested. For the first few months he wore the clothes he arrived in, unchanged, despite mucking out the horses daily.”

He was later moved to a caravan with a broken door and a shower was installed in one of the outbuildings, Mr Hipkin said.

He said Simester had originally been approached by another of Doran Sr’s sons who offered him work.

Both defendants deny a single charge of requiring another to perform forced or compulsory labour between April 6 2010 and March 1 2013.

Mr Hipkin said the jury would have to decide whether Mr Simester could have been a volunteer at the farm “because he preferred it in some way as a way of life” or whether he was coerced to remain there under some form of menace or threat.

In police interviews Doran Sr told police Mr Simester worked for his son rather than him while Doran Jr gave “no comment” interviews but in a prepared statement said Mr Simester was free to go at any time.

The timeline in the case dates back before this but 2010 is when the legislation dealing with it was brought in, Mr Hipkin said.

Proceeding.