Appeal denied for suburban slave-owning couple

A Melbourne couple convicted of keeping a woman as a slave have had their appeal denied, despite judges suggesting some of their victim's claims might have sounded "preposterous" to jurors.

Kumuthini Kannan and her husband Kandasamy Kannan were convicted in 2021 of enslaving a vulnerable Tamil woman in their Mount Waverley home between 2007 and 2015.

The wife was ordered to serve at least four years of an eight-year sentence, while her husband must serve three years of a six-year sentence.

Their victim, now 70, said she had to work up to 23 hours a day doing housework, caring for the couple's three children and was locked inside the home, prevented from going out or mixing with others in Melbourne's Tamil community.

The Kannans challenged both their convictions and the length of their sentences.

Three Court of Appeal justices on Tuesday rejected those arguments.

They said although the jury may have thought some of the Tamil woman's claims were extravagant, if not preposterous, consideration of the evidence would have satisfied the jury that the couple had power over her daily life - when she worked, what work she did, when she slept, ate and the money she was paid.

"Which, on any view of the evidence, was a pittance," the judges noted.

There was evidence she earned less than $3.40 a day.

They also added that taken literally, much of the woman's evidence was inconsistent and significant parts were improbably, if not wholly, fanciful. But some of that may be explained by language problems and difficulties with translation.

But it was clear there were occasions where the woman lied, they said.

The fact much of her evidence was unsatisfactory did not inescapably lead to the conclusion the jury verdicts were unreasonable, they found.

There was sufficient detail in her evidence for a jury to be satisfied that the Kannans had possessed and used her as a slave, exercising rights of ownership over her.

The woman first lived with Kumuthini and Kandasamy Kannan for six months each in 2002 and 2004, before returning on a 30-day tourist visa in 2007.

She was rushed to hospital in July 2015.

The judges said the woman's descent into grave ill-health cannot have gone unnoticed by the couple, yet no medical assistance was sought for her until she wasted to 40kg and was found hypothermic and barely conscious.

It was open for jurors to find the Kannans exercised control over her access to medical care to the extent it was not sought for her until her state of health had become precarious, the judges found.