A MAN with learning difficulties who claims he was kept as a slave by an Oxford traveller family told a court yesterday he was beaten by the man he thought of as his dad.

Three members of the Joyce family, of Redbridge Hollow caravan site, Old Abingdon Road, housed Nick Iliff in one of their caravans from the 1980s until this year while defrauding him of more than £100,000 in benefits, the prosecution say.

A jury at Oxford Crown Court heard how four members of the family forced him to perform menial work including sweeping the site, picking up dog mess and tying Christopher Joyce’s shoes.

Mr Iliff, 51, who has severe learning difficulties, told the court yesterday that Mr Joyce – a man he said he once called “dad” – also beat him with a broom and a rake.

Christopher Joyce, 81, and his three children Mary, 59, Timothy, 44 and Helen Collins, 44, all deny conspiring to hold Mr Iliff in servitude and conspiring to require him to perform forced or compulsory labour.

Mr Joyce and his daughters also deny conspiracy to defraud Mr Iliff of his benefits.

Christopher Joyce’s defence barrister Graham Bennett yesterday tried to persuade the jury that the Joyces took Mr Iliff in and treated him as one of the family.

Mr Bennett told the court how Mr Iliff, who went to school in Oxford, had been kicked out by his mother and ended up homeless before the family took him in in the 1980s at their former home, Slade Travellers’ site in Oxford.

Mr Iliff appeared to the court via a video link from a secret location, accompanied by somebody to help him understand.

Mr Bennett put it to him: “You became part of the family in a way”.

Mr Iliff replied: “In a way.”

Mr Bennett said: “And you called Winny Joyce (Christopher Joyce’s wife, now deceased) ‘mum’ and called Christie (Christopher Joyce) ‘dad’.” Mr Iliff said: “Yes.”

Mr Bennett went on: “Mrs Joyce became the mother you hadn’t got”, and Mr Iliff said that was the case.

Mr Iliff also accepted the Joyce family included him in birthday parties, weddings and Christmas.

However, at one point Mr Iliff had to ask his intermediary what was going on, and they repeatedly asked Mr Bennett to stop asking questions with a “leading nature” – statements with an implied question to which Mr Iliff would simply reply “yes” or “they did”.

Mary Joyce’s barrister Peter Du Feu asked Mr Iliff if he had ever been happy at Redbridge, to which he replied “sometimes”, but when he asked if Mr Iliff understood what the word “grateful” meant he said “not really”.

Mr Du Feu asked Mr Iliff if he remembered signing benefits claim forms with Mary Joyce and he said: “I can’t recall”.

He asked: “Did you know you were receiving benefits money?”

Mr Iliff replied: “No. If I was getting money why didn’t I see it?”

Mr Du Feu asked him why he told police in his original interview that he knew he was on disability benefits and he said: “I don’t know why I said that.”

Mr Iliff said he was given just £5 a day to live on, although he admitted he lived in his caravan for free.

Mr Du Feu said: “Didn’t you get an envelope with your week’s worth of money in it every week from Mary?” and he replied: “No, that’s a lie.”

Mr Iliff said he did not know that he had a bank account and post office savings account in his name.

Mr Du Feu told the court how Mr Iliff had spent his life since leaving the family in February: he went to supported housing where he was kicked out for his aggressive behaviour, then stayed with a friend who also kicked him out, and was finally kicked out of a Salvation Army hostel, leaving him homeless.

Mr Du Fue said to him: “Thinking about it now, is there anything you miss from Redbridge?”

Mr Iliff replied: “No. I wanted them to leave me alone, I don’t like people taking my money.”

The trial continues.