THREE women illegally trafficked into the UK and forced to work as slaves in Enfield have been awarded damages from the Met Police.

The women, along with a fourth taken to Barking, were brought into the country from Nigeria as children and forced to work long hours with little or no pay.

They all say they were abused and humiliated at the hands of families they were forced to work for, and claimed police did not investigate their cases.

A High Court judge has today agreed the Met's “failure to investigate”, and awarded each woman £5,000 damages because their human rights were breached.

One woman was brought to a home in Southgate illegally from Nigeria as a 15-year-old, and was “slapped and smacked” regularly while working in servitude.

Another woman was 14-years-old when brought to Enfield in 2000 and was regularly forced to work from 6.30am until the early hours of the next day.

The third woman was just 11-years-old when illegally trafficked and put to work in a home in Edmonton.

The high court heard she was the victim of “very significant violence”, and was at one stage stabbed in the head with a meat cleaver.

The Met has said it is studying the judgment handed down today, and said in a statement: “It is of course a matter of deep regret that the claimants did not receive the levels of service which they expected.”

It said detectives are now conducting “full and ongoing investigations” into the cases, and one woman has already been jailed for 11-and-a-half-years.

And the statement added: “The way in which the Met investigates crimes of this nature has changed significantly in recent times with the introduction in April 2010 of the dedicated unit of 39 detectives responsible for the investigation of all human trafficking and immigration offences.”