Chinese police free man kept locked up as factory slave for 18 years
Xie Shisheng, originally from Jiangxi province, found stammering, looking dazed and unkempt after years of confinement in Guangdong
PUBLISHED : Friday, 24 April, 2015, 1:52pm
UPDATED : Friday, 24 April, 2015, 2:16pm
Alice Yan
[email protected]
Xie Shisheng is pictured on Wednesday after his rescue by police after being held prisoner for 18 years. Photo: Qingyuan Daily
Police in China have rescued a man reportedly kept prisoner for 18 years who was tortured into working as a slave in an underground workshop, mainland media reported.
Xie Shisheng, originally from eastern Jiangxi province, was found stammering, looking dazed and unkempt from years of confinement after he was freed by Guangdong police on Wednesday.
Guangdong police are now examining the contents of the workshop after freeing Xie Shisheng on Wednesday . Photo: Qingyuan Daily
Police raided the workshop making quilts and pillows in the city’s Qingcheng district of Qingyuan after neighbours had complained about hearing “disturbances”, the Nanfang Daily reported.
One man living nearby was quoted by the newspaper saying that he heard a man’s screams every night.
Xie’s captors – a couple from his hometown in Jiangxi, who allegedly owned the workshop – had already fled the scene by the time police arrived, the newspaper said.
Xie said had been kept prisoner, tortured and forced to work as a slave since the age of 16, when he left Jiangxi to work for the couple at the business in Guangdong province.
The factory where Xie Shisheng was locked up was found to be filled with materials used for making quilts and pillows. Photo: Qingyuan Daily
He claimed they had beaten and tortured him every day and made him do onerous jobs inside the workshop.
“The workshop owners often forced dirty things into my mouth,” he said. “Whenever I struggled, they would hit me over the head with an iron hammer. The female owner would also sit on my body and urinated over me.”
The windows of the workshop where Xie Shisheng was held prisoner were boarded up. Photo: Qingyuan Daily
Xie said the couple had moved premises in the area several times over the years and had threatened him with violence to stop him trying to escape.
He was always kept locked inside rooms that had the windows boarded up and had lost track of time over the years, he added.
Xie claimed he not had any contact with other people, apart from his two captors, during his confinement, the newspaper reported.
Police investigating Xie’s reported confinement were now examining a small, foul-smelling workshop building, crammed with materials used for making bed quilts and pillows, the newspaper reported.
