Taking over a person’s home for the purpose of illegal activity like selling or stashing drugs could become a criminal offence for the first time as MPs back new legislation.
County lines gangs who carry out the heartless practice, called ‘cuckooing’, could face seven years if convicted, according to the 48 MPs supporting the proposal.
The problem was highlighted in popular police dramas Happy Valley and Line of Duty – where Terry Boyle, who has Down’s syndrome, is taken of advantage of by gangsters who hide a body in the freezer of his subsidised council flat.
However, the horrific practice – which is carried out on elderly and people with mental health issues – is very real with the most famous case being that of famous jazz trumpeter William Algar, who was murdered and dismembered after his flat was taken over by drug dealers.
And because it is not currently a specific crime to take over a person’s home for the purpose of illegal enterprise, prosecuting ‘cuckoos’ can prove difficult.
‘Cuckoo’ victims can end up being persecuted, as Line of Duty depicted when Terry Boyle was arrested after a drug dealers had stored a body in his flat
Ciera Hulatt was handed a ‘community protection notice’, which effectively banned her from two Essex towns, after she was found in a number of homes that had been ‘cuckooed’
Jazz trumpeter William Agar, 53, was chopped up in his own bathtub after his home had been taken over by drug dealers
Back in 2018, Ciera Hulatt was handed a ‘community protection notice’, which effectively banned her from two Essex towns, after she was found in a number of homes that had been ‘cuckooed’ by a county lines group called the ‘knuckles gang’.
While this type of notice does stop a person from ‘cuckooing’ in a certain area, they are still free carry out the practice in other areas.
Back in December 2019, Trumpeter William Agar, who played with punk legends The Dammed, was killed and then dismembers in his tiny south-west London flat after a gang had taken over his home to use as a base for drug dealing.
The 53-year-old musician, who was known as Blaise and suffered mental health issues, had accepted that the criminals had taken over his house and that he was being treated as their ‘slave’ but he objected when they began torturing his cat and he was killed.
The jazz trumpeter was chopped up in his own bathtub before his body was disposed in a shallow grave in a nature reserve.
Janayo Lucima, 21, who was imprisoned for helping to dispose of the body, was shot dead at a property in West Kensington at around 10.20pm last Easter Monday.
Three others were sentenced for their part in disposing of Mr Algar’s body – including Emeka Dawuda-Wodu who killed a rival drug dealer days after cutting up the corpse – but nobody has been convicted of his murder.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith has brought forward an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would make ‘cuckooing’ punishable by up to seven years in prison.
And in another horrific case in 2021, a terrified man had to flee from a drug dealer’s home naked and covered in blood after he had been abducted for telling the police he had been ‘cuckooed’.
Michael Kavanagh took over the victim’s home in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire after stealing his keys – leaving the man to walk the streets.
The police changed the locks on the apartment while Kavanagh was out after the man told them what had happened.
When Kavanagh returned on he flew into rage and forced his way in, Hull Crown Court heard in 2021.
Prosecutor Amanda Johnson told the court three years ago: ‘He found the victim hiding in the kitchen and Kavanagh then viciously assaulted him.
‘He kicked him to the face and punched him three or four times. He grabbed him by the back of the head then banged his face on the floor.
‘He picked him up by the scruff of the neck and frogmarched him out of the flat and into a Vauxhall car.’
The court heard Kavanagh then took the man to a house in Convamore Road, Grimsby with the help of two accomplices.
Kavanagh forced the man upstairs, told him to strip naked and then struck him around the head with a lamp, telling him he would stay there ‘until he got back the money he was owed’.
When the others left the house to buy drugs, their victim seized the opportunity to escape. Ms Johnson continued: ‘He looked out of the window and saw the car had gone.
‘He went downstairs. He was under the impression the door was locked. There was a key in the door but whatever the position, in the state he was in, he perceived that he had been locked in.’
The man found a bike frame, threw it through the downstairs window and climbed out, severely cutting his arms, legs and feet.
Michael Kavanagh was jailed for eight and a half years in 2021 for abducting and torturing a man he had ‘cuckooed’
The victim of a ‘cuckooing’ criminal was forced to flee naked and covered in blood after he was abducted
Ms Johnson added: ‘He ran to a nearby shop and asked the shopkeeper to call an ambulance and the police and lock the shop door behind him.’
Kavanagh was jailed for eight and a half years for abducting and torturing the man in 2021.
Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland is backing the amendment as he believes taking over a vulnerable person’s home should be a recognised crime.
He said: ‘I think that “cuckooing” is another example of how we can reflect the sad reality that there are still many, many people out there who have vulnerabilities who are being exploited by criminal gangs or more sophisticated operators, who use these people as a human shield in order to conceal their criminal activities.
‘Therefore, I think anything we can do to strip away that last shield has got to be a good thing in terms of really meeting the criminality where it lies.’
Sir Buckland added that victims of ‘cuckooing’ – who can be the elderly, people with mental health issues and learning disabilities – can face criminal prosecution.
He said: ‘I think it is important that we seek to use the full force of the criminal law to tackle this type of exploitation.’
The Home Office said: ‘Cuckooing is unacceptable, and the police already have a range of powers to step in and protect vulnerable people if they are being exploited in this way, including possible jail time for the perpetrator.
‘We will consider the amendment and engage with parliamentary colleagues in the usual way.’
