Kolo Toure's Maid Claims She Was Treated Like A Slave

 

Alice Sawyer the maid of Kolo Toure has claimed she was treated like a slave and was forced to work up to 16 hour days at his mansion in Cheshire. Alice Sawyer was so scared of the Liverpool player's wife, who made her perform demeaning tasks such as tying her shoelaces, she fled last week.

The live-in domestic helper was paid less than the minimum wage and had her passport withheld when she returned to Toure's house and tried to quit on Saturday. Ms Sawyer said Toure saw how she was treated but never confronted his wife, Awo, whom she was forced to call madam. She said “I wish I'd never met them. It was awful, I was rarely given a day off and would usually work weekends.  It was non-stop. I was on my feet all the time. All I'd hear was shouting and nagging.  She'd get angry all the time. No matter what I did it was wrong. She'd run her hand over surfaces I'd dusted and make me do it again. She'd get up in my face shouting and pointing her finger”

The cruel treatment of the mother-of-two, who has a British dad and Filipino mum, eventually stopped when her family called 999 and police arrived at the football star's £1.75million home in Prestbury, Cheshire. She was paid a basic rate of £350 a week for 8am to 8pm shifts Monday to Friday and £8 for every extra hour she worked - but sometimes her shifts wouldn't end until 3am. She sent the money she earn back home to her family.

Her pay rate equated to £6.63 an hour. The minimum wage is £7.20 an hour. Toure assured Ms Sawyer taxes and national insurance would be sorted by him, but as she was paid cash in hand she is not sure this happened.