A HOMELESS man was tied up naked in a shed for two days and told to eat dog food after fleeing from a member of a traveller family he was working for, a court has heard.
John Anderson said he was brought back to Scotland in punishment for running away, and left screaming for his life during after a young boy was ordered to light his petrol soaked body.
Jurors heard claims the 43 year-old had earlier escaped from James McPhee and fled Oxfordshire.
But he returned north where he was then allegedly battered and “taught a lesson” by McPhee’s father Robert.
Mr Anderson said he was later dumped in the metal shed where he was urinated on by children. He was giving evidence at the trial of James McPhee (45), Robert McPhee (65), Steven McPhee (37) and John Miller (38).
The four face a total of 30 charges between them at the High Court in Glasgow, over including accusations – which span between 1992 and 2016 – of slavery and violence.
The four deny the allegations.
Mr Anderson had been homeless in 1998 when he was offered labouring work by James McPhee.
He stayed on a caravan site and carried out jobs such as mono-blocking driveways.
But, the man told how McPhee could be violent towards him “whenever he was unhappy”.
The alleged assaults including being punched, kicked and hit with a pick axe handle.
Mr Anderson later left with a fellow worker heading for England and got a lift from a trucker to Banbury in Oxfordshire before going to a homeless shelter in Cambridge.
He told how he met a fellow Scot there and he offered to buy him a pint at a local pub.
Mr Anderson said he was left in “shock” when James McPhee walked in, but went with him to in Larkhall, Lanarkshire where McPhee lived.
Mr Anderson said it was there he was taken into his house and Robert McPhee – nicknamed the Tank Commander – was also inside.
Mr Anderson said he was to be “taught a lesson” not to “run away” again, and described how he was allegedly attacked in the kitchen by Robert McPhee – known as Bobby - and ended up grounded.
The man said he was punched “all over”, hit with a broom and kicked.
He said: “I thought I was going to die. I thought that this was going to be the end.”
“I was curled up in a ball...I was not looking. In this situation, you block it out and wait for it to finish.”
Mr Anderson then told how he ended up being put in a metal shed where a dog slept. He was told to strip, had his hands and feet tied with rope and left inside.
Mr Anderson told jurors: “James asked was I hungry. He said that if I was hungry enough, I could eat the dog food."
The trial heard Mr Anderson also had petrol poured over him from “head to toe”.
The trial, before Lady Stacey, continues.
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