Well, folks, here’s a story that sounds like something straight out of a crime thriller—except it’s all too real.
Lydia Mugambe, a United Nations judge and Ugandan high court justice, was convicted in a British court on Thursday for luring a woman to the U.K. under false pretenses and forcing her into unpaid domestic servitude. That’s right—a U.N. judge, someone supposedly dedicated to upholding justice and human rights, was found guilty of modern-day slavery. You truly cannot make this stuff up.
Mugambe, who was studying for a doctorate at Oxford and has been affiliated with both the U.N. and Columbia University’s human rights program, presented herself as a benefactor. She promised her victim—an unsuspecting Ugandan woman—a legitimate job in a diplomatic household.
But once she had her in the U.K., things took a dark turn. Instead of placing her in an official role, Mugambe confiscated her passport, stripped her of her freedom, and forced her to work as an unpaid maid and nanny in her own private residence.
It’s the kind of story that makes you shake your head. This is someone who spent her career in international law, someone trusted to deliver justice—and yet, behind closed doors, she was running her own personal labor camp.
Prosecutors detailed how she exploited the woman’s lack of legal knowledge to keep her trapped, controlling her movements and silencing her voice. If it weren’t for a friend of the victim who managed to alert authorities, who knows how long this nightmare would have continued?
And let’s talk about the irony here. This is a judge who has been involved in human rights programs. A Columbia University fellow. A United Nations official. And yet, she was found guilty of forced labor, an immigration offense, and conspiracy to intimidate a witness.
Let that sink in. The very institutions that claim to stand against human exploitation were unknowingly harboring someone who was actively engaging in it.
The courtroom was reportedly stunned as the verdicts were read, with gasps heard from those in attendance. Even Mugambe herself appeared visibly shaken—so much so that the judge ordered the courtroom cleared. She denied all charges, but the evidence was enough for a jury to convict her on multiple counts.