Three women allegedly held as slaves in London are to be formally interviewed by police for the first time.
Officers have had indirect contact with the trio, who it is claimed were effectively brainwashed into remaining in a political collective for more than three decades, but have had to wait until trauma experts gave them the go-ahead to take their accounts in person.
Commander Steve Rodhouse police did not yet fully understand the "nature of the allegations".
"We are moving to a point where we will be able to interview the victims and our plan is actually to do so today," Rodhouse said on Wednesday.
He said there may have been "many and varied offences" against the women, who were allegedly held captive at various addresses in London, but that their ordeal may not be defined as modern day slavery.
"We need to maintain an open mind on what this particular incident is before we jump to those conclusions and labels," Rodhouse said.
"The crucial issue for us is that, on the basis of the information that we've had indirectly from victims, clearly criminal offences have been committed. What we need to do now is to understand that in much more detail."
A total of 47 officers are now working on the inquiry, launched after one of the women - a 30-year-old Briton, a 57-year-old Irishwoman and a 69-year-old Malaysian - contacted staff from the Freedom Charity last month, and eventually left the house in Brixton, south London, where they said they were being held.
Police agreed to wait until last week to arrest the suspected captors, said to be Maoist activists Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife, Chanda Pattni.
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