Three women ‘slaves’ have been rescued after more than 30 years - including one who had NEVER had contact with the outside world.
Officers arrested a man and a woman, both aged 67, this morning after investigations sparked by a call to a charity from one of the women.
All three - described as "highly traumatised" - were taken from a house in Lambeth, south London, to a place of safety several weeks ago.
The three women are a 69-year-old Malaysian woman, a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 30-year-old British woman.
It is understood the traumatised Irish woman raised the alarm after watching ITV's Exposure documentary on forced marriages in October.
She phoned the Freedom Charity, which supports victims of forced marriages, who worked with Scotland Yard to help the trio leave the house.
The 30-year-old British woman had allegedly never had contact with the outside world, the Metropolitan Police said.
It is not yet known whether she was born in the house but she is understood to have been in servitude her entire life, they said.
The three victims are not believed to be related to one another.
Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland, from the Met's human trafficking unit, said: “These are deeply traumatised people and it is essentially that we work sensitively to establish the facts in this case.
“We have established that all three women were held in this situation for at least 30 years. They did have some controlled freedom.
“The human trafficking unit of the Metropolitan police deals with many cases of servitude and forced labour.
"We have seen some cases where people have been held for up to 10 years, but we have never seen anything of this magnitude before.”
Officers said the two suspects have been taken to a south London police station where they remain in custody.
Aneeta Prem, Freedom Charity founder, said the alleged victims - who are believed to have suffered physical and mental harm - were able to walk out of the property after extensive calls with the charity.
She told Sky News: "We started in-depth to talks to them when they could, it had to be pre-arranged.
"They gave us set times when they were able to speak to us.
"It was planned that they would be able to walk out of the property. The police were on standby.
"They were able to leave the property, but it was done in such a way... it was a very, very excellent way it happened.
Ms Prem said the two people arrested were considered the "heads of the family", and that the women were "absolutely terrified" of them.
She added: "They felt they were in massive danger. I don't believe the neighbours knew anything about it at all.
"It was just an ordinary house in an ordinary street. They were very restricted on everything they could do. We absolutely thrilled this has happened."
Asked about what help the women will be given, the charity founder said: "They are going to be afforded all the help and support that can be.
"I'm so grateful they saw the news. Now they will try to re-build their lives."
Det Inspector Hyland added: "We applaud the actions of Freedom Charity and are working in partnership to support these victims who appear to have been held for over 30 years.
"We have launched an extensive investigation to establish the facts surrounding these very serious allegations.
"A television documentary on forced marriages relating to the work of Freedom Charity was the catalyst that prompted one of the victims to call for help and led to their rescue."
Earlier this year the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) - a joint operation by the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office - revealed it helped in 1,485 cases of possible forced marriage in 2012, involving 60 countries across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and North America.
The statistics for last year show that of the 744 cases where the age was known, more than 600 involved people under the age of 26.
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