A Ugandan High Court judge and United Nations judicial officer, Lydia Mugambe, has been sentenced to six years and four months in prison by a UK court for modern slavery offenses, after she was found guilty of forcing a young Ugandan woman to work unpaid as a domestic servant and nanny in her Oxfordshire home. The sentence was handed down at Oxford Crown Court on Friday, following Mugambe’s March 2025 conviction. At the time of the abuse, the 50-year-old judge was enrolled in a PhD program in law at the University of Oxford.
The court heard that Mugambe fraudulently arranged a UK visa for the victim, claiming she would be employed and paid as a private servant at the official residence of John Mugerwa, Uganda’s former deputy high commissioner to the UK. Instead, Mugambe transported the victim to her personal residence in Kidlington, where she was subjected to long hours of unpaid labor, caring for children and performing household chores under exploitative conditions.
Prosecutors said Mugambe and Mugerwa conspired in the visa scheme. In exchange for his cooperation, Mugambe allegedly offered legal assistance in a court case Mugerwa was facing in Uganda. Evidence showed that Mugerwa knowingly sponsored the visa under false pretenses, making him complicit in the trafficking arrangement.
Presiding Judge David Foxton described Mugambe’s conduct as a “gross abuse of trust,” noting that she “showed absolutely no remorse” and attempted to blame the victim for her own enslavement. He emphasized the gravity of her actions, especially given her legal background and status as a representative of justice. The case marks one of the few high-profile modern slavery convictions involving a senior judicial figure, drawing condemnation from human rights advocates and renewed scrutiny over diplomatic abuses of domestic worker visa systems.
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