A PENSIONER accused of keeping a modern day slave says the woman was “smiling, happy and cheerful” in her home.

Saeeda Khan, 68, is accused of keeping Mwanahanisi Mruke prisoner at her Whitmore Road house to wait on her beck and call, deprived of food and sleeping in the cold on a thin mattress.

But the Harrow pensioner this morning told Southwark Crown Court the 47-year-old was happy during the four years she was working there and had little work to do.

She told jurors: “She was always smiling, happy and cheerful. I was surprised when I heard that she was not happy in my house, when they took her away after that.”

She claims Ms Mruke wanted to come back for another four years after her visa ran out and said there were never any arguments between them.

Mrs Khan denies stopping her from going home to see her dying parents and says she was free to leave the house when she wanted to and had free time every day.

Under her contract, Ms Mruke was supposed to be paid an allowance of just £10 a month with the equivalent of £50 going to a bank account in Tanzania.

When asked by prosecutor Caroline Haughey what she was supposed to do in her free time with just £10 a month she said Ms Mruke did not want to go out, and spent her time watching television.

She said: “I was buying everything for her, all the expense – household, food, lodging, leisure, going out anywhere.

“Everything was on me. She wanted £10 just in case she needed to spend it anywhere but all her wages should be paid in Tanzania to buy a plot of land to build a house.”

She is accused of leaving Ms Mruke to sleep on a thin mattress but the defendant claims she had the heating on 24 hours a day because of her arthritis and says the house was warm.

She said Ms Mruke had two blankets, a quilt and two sheets and also denies forcing her to work after an operation when she had been told by doctors to rest.

Mrs Khan denies one offence of trafficking people for exploitation.

The trial continues.