Police launch people trafficking probe after woman staggers into village pub claiming she had been kidnapped

Staff and customers at the Stocks Tavern in Parbold were shocked when two women and a man came into the restaurant during lunchtime service on Wednesday May 18 and one of them began making allegations that she had been kidnapped.

She said that there was people trafficking going on in the village and identified a terraced property nearby.

Police were called, both because of the serious allegations and the fact that all three of the strangers seemed “out of it”, Stocks Tavern manager Neil Hindley told Wigan Today.

Officers arrived and kept the woman who had made the allegations in the restaurant while taking the othe two to their van outside, without making any arrests.

It is believed that an address on Mill Lane was also visited.

Lancashire Constabulary would say little about the incident other than to issue the following statement: “We attended Stocks Tavern, Parbold, after a report of suspicious circumstances.

“All enquiries were completed with no offences disclosed.”

Mr Hindley, who was not at the inn at the time, said: “I was told that it was a very strange incident.

"The people who came in were all behaving a little oddly and it was decided that they shouldn’t be served. They were out of it, as if they had taken something.

"Then one of the ladies began to make allegations that she had been trafficked.

"She was separated from the others by the police and I believe she was then taken to a women’s refuge.”