Safeguarding changes for children in custody to be introduced, following Medomsley Detention Centre abuse
A report, released yesterday, revealed the extent of the sexual and physical abuse inmates at Medomsley Detention Centre in County Durham received, during the 60's, 70's and 80's.
A new safeguarding panel is set to be implemented - in the wake of a report into the horrific abuse suffered by inmates at Medomsley Detention Centre in Consett.
Minister for Youth Justice Jake Richards has apologised to the victims and survivors subjected to shocking and systematic abuse at Medomsley Detention Centre.
Speaking on behalf of the government, Minister Richards described the abuse as “a monstrous perversion of justice” and paid tribute to the courage of survivors and the tireless campaigning of MPs and families who have fought for justice over many years.
In a written statement to Parliament responding to the report, the Government has today also announced new measures to ensure such horrors are never allowed to happen again.
A new Youth Custody Safeguarding Panel, led by an expert in child safeguarding, will review how children are protected in custody.
The panel will examine areas such as complaints processes, staff training and ensure children’s voices are heard.
Minister for Youth Justice, Jake Richards said:
“To the men who suffered such horrific abuse at Medomsley, I want to say again - I am truly sorry. The failings set out in today’s report by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman are truly harrowing, and we must ensure nothing like this ever happens again.
“This Government is establishing a Youth Custody Safeguarding Panel to review how we protect children in custody today. It will ensure their voices are heard, that complaints are taken seriously, and that every child is kept safe from harm.”
The Ministry of Justice says the youth custodial system today bears little resemblance to the one at which the abuse at Medomsley took place, with children no longer detained for less serious offences and the number of children in custody has fallen significantly in the last 20 years.
However, the government says they are determined that those who do require custody receive the best care and support they need to turn their lives around.
The Youth Custody Safeguarding Panel will report directly to Ministers and will look closely at how professionals work with young people in custody. This includes how children can speak up if something is wrong and how safety measures are working.
In 2019, the Ministry of Justice established a settlement scheme for victims and survivors of physical and sexual abuse at Medomsley.
To date, this has paid out over £10m to over 2,700 individuals and anyone who suffered abuse at Medomsley is still able to make a claim.
The Government has also reaffirmed its commitment to wider child safeguarding reforms, including:
-A new statutory duty to report child sexual abuse for professionals working with children.
-Stronger obligations on public bodies to provide evidence with candour during investigations.
-Enhanced legal rights for victims through the Victims and Courts Bill, currently progressing through Parliament.
Yesterday Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Adrian Usher released his report into Medomsley, concluding the Wardens there were either complicit in the sexual and physical abuse of the young men, or they were incompetent.
The report found that staff were left to decide how the centre operated as its objectives were not clearly set out.
The ethos of the "short, sharp shock" for men aged 17-21, who had been convicted of relatively minor crimes, was in place to deter them from re-offending, and the experience was meant to be unpleasant.
Mr Usher said: "Such an environment meant that some staff believed, whatever the rule book said, that they could best achieve their aims with violence as a training method."
The scale of the abuse meant its leaders, known as wardens until the term changed to governor in the 1980s, were aware of it and therefore "complicit", or "they lacked dedication and professional curiosity to such an extent as to not be professionally competent", the ombudsman said.
He added: "Ultimately, they had the power and authority to take action and prevent the abuse of hundreds, if not thousands, of victims had they diligently and proactively discharged the duties of their office.
"Sadly for the lives of those victims, there is no evidence that they did so."
The PPO found that trainees were physically abused from the moment they arrived, when they bathed, strip searched, during physical education, whilst working and even during medical examinations.
Mr Usher found that oversight of the centre by external bodies was poor and if family members made complaints about their loved ones' treatment, nothing happened.
He said: "The abuse at Medomsley continued, unchallenged, for the entire 26 years of its operation.
"The knowledge of abuse by the Prison Service, the police, the Home Office and other organisations of authority was ignored and dismissed.
"Sending these young men to Medomsley was supposed to instil them with more ordered, law-abiding lives.
"The authorities failed in their duty to keep detainees safe."
Addressing them, he said: "The effects of the trauma they suffered effectively became a life sentence... with devastating consequences.
"However, it is my fervent hope that, for many victims, what this report represents is a victory for your tenacity, determination and courage.
"You may have had to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles over the last 40 years and more but, in the end, you were heard, and you were believed."
The inquiry spoke to 79 victims and witnesses.
Yesterday Durham Constabulary also issued an apology for what happened at Medomsley,
Chief Constable Rachel Bacon said: “On behalf of Durham Constabulary I wish to publicly offer my sincerest apologies to those victims and their families for those failures.
“This report makes for extremely difficult reading. It exposes shameful failings by police at that time: both to recognise that the physical violence meted out by staff at Medomsley amounted to abuse or to adequately investigate allegations by those victims who did have the bravery to come forward and report what happened to them.
“Thousands of young men were let down by the system and are continuing to live with the wounds left by that abuse. Those victims were, and remain, our primary concern.”
The force say the horrific physical and sexual abuse which took place at Medomsley was subject to a six-year investigation, the biggest in Durham Constabulary’s history, and the force has worked closely with the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman report team to fully disclose the evidence uncovered during the three successive police investigations into Medomsley.
From 2001 onwards, two police investigations took place under the umbrella Operation Halter, and led to the conviction of Medomsley chef Neville Husband, who was ultimately sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for 15 sexual offences against trainees.
Those investigations led to the launch in 2013 of Operation Seabrook, the largest and most detailed police enquiry into institutional abuse in UK history.
More than 2,000 victims came forward to Operation Seabrook and 20,000 items of material were thoroughly examined over six years, with a team of 70 detectives on the investigation at its height.
Despite the difficulties posed by the historic nature of the witness evidence, nine former members of staff at Medomsley Detention Centre were charged with offences and brought before the courts. Five people were eventually convicted for their part in that abuse. One defendant was ruled not fit to stand trial and another died while awaiting court proceedings.
Chief Constable Bacon added: “All authorities should take time to consider this report and truly reflect on the horrifying failings which it has exposed.
“I am satisfied that policing standards at Durham Constabulary are worlds apart from those which sadly appear to have existed at that time.
“Modern policing practices, along with robust statutory safeguarding measures to protect vulnerable people and tighter scrutiny around standards, have transformed our approach to investigations and victim care.
“While nothing can begin to mitigate the scale of suffering inflicted on those young men over so long a period, Durham Constabulary hopes that those investigations are evidence of our commitment to achieve justice for victims, no matter how much time may have elapsed.”