ROME – A Bosnian mother and father were arrested for allegedly enslaving their 14 year-old daughter, police said. The pair were taken into custody in the outskirts of Rome on Saturday morning, a month after the victim first reported the situation to authorities.

 According to testimonies given by the teenager to police, she had for years been reduced to a life of hardship, and was forced to beg for money at a nearby supermarket. Her mother and father, aged 36 and 41 respectively, were arrested under the accusation of enslavement and grievous bodily harm. It is alleged that the couple regularly abused their daughter, both verbally and physically, while forcing her to undertake domestic chores unsuited to a girl of her age. They had also arranged for the 14 year-old to marry a complete stranger in exchange for money, despite the bride-to-be’s resolute refusal, and on several occasions she had attempted suicide.

 The father was taken into custody while the mother was put under house arrest. In preliminary judgement, the parents were described as “violent and despotic personalities, determined to draw economic sources for their personal expenses from their daughter’s mendicancy” and it was said that both were “incapable of taking into account the dissent and distress of one of their children, and of respecting the need to send her school and to take care of her basic needs.”

 es