Sexual & physical abuse of detention centre inmates

Boys at a detention centre asked other inmates to break their legs in order to be moved elsewhere and escape being abused by staff, a former detainee has claimed. 

Police reopened a 10-year-old investigation into abuse at a former County Durham detention centre last year when a former inmate said he was also abused. Since then the force said it has been contacted by more than 100 alleged victims.

Men who alleged that as boys they were the victims of sexual and physical abuse at the County Durham detention centre in the 1970s and 1980s have spoken of their memories.
"Some of the boys would lay at the bottom of the stairs and ask another boy to jump off the stairs on to their legs so they could break a leg and be removed from Medomsley Detention Centre in order to not be subjected to any more beatings," an alleged victim, who did not wish to be named, said.

 

Ray Poar said he was made to "bunny hop to the showers naked"

Following the original investigation, Neville Husband, who worked at the detention centre as a prison officer, was jailed for 12 years in 2003, and Leslie Johnson, a store man, was sentenced to six years in 2005.
Both men have since died.

Since the investigation was reopened in August, Durham Police has received statements from 143 alleged victims of abuse.

Many of those sent to Medomsley were first-time offenders often detained for relatively minor offences.
Ray Poar was 17 when he was sent there for stealing biscuits from a factory and has waived his right to anonymity.

He said: "It's always in my head, the shame, it's ruined my life, it's completely ruined it."
'Kicking us about' On one occasion Mr Poar remembered being woken up after wetting his bed and being forced to bunny hop naked to the showers.

He said: "When I couldn't make it to the showers I was kicked.

 
Neville Husband was jailed for 12 years in 2003 and later died

"We knew we couldn't turn around to them and complain to them about what had happened with Husband because they were part of it, they were the ones that were kicking us about every day.

"The odd punch in the arm, the ribs, the back of the knees, every day they were doing it. You had nobody to talk to."

In 2003, Newcastle Crown Court heard Husband used his position of authority at the centre to systematically abuse his victims from 1974 to 1984. He was jailed after being found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault and one of a serious sexual offence after police said almost two dozen victims came forward.

One man who wished to remain anonymous said some of the worst violence he suffered was from fellow inmates but he alleges it was orchestrated by prison staff.

He said: "They were telling you that you were worthless, that's why you were in there, you were no good, nobody wanted you.

"I was in the dorm, I felt being kicked and punched and slapped. When I've tried to look up, because I was in bed, I saw a prison officer at the door smiling.

'I apologise' "Then I realised he's put them up to this and I just curled up into a ball and took what they threw at us. I thought tonight it's my turn, it will be somebody else's tomorrow."

About 70 Durham Police detectives are working on the inquiry.

Det Supt Paul Goundry described the reports as "horrific" and those who were sent there were faced with "what was effectively a brutal regime".

"If you ended up in the kitchens you would almost certainly be raped and sexually assaulted," he said.

 

Det Supt Paul Goundry described the reports as "horrific"

 

Mr Goundry said the three key strands of the inquiry were finding out what happened at Medomsley over 20 years, to hold people to account if they were still alive and support any victims.

Tim Newell, who was the governor at Medomsley between 1978-1981, wrote reports about Husband including that he provided "an outstanding contribution to the running of the establishment".

However, in January, Mr Newell said in a statement he wrote the report about Husband because "he was an outstanding catering officer" and did not have a strong relationship with Husband.

Mr Newell said: "If I had any suspicions about sexual abuse or abuse of any kind I would have taken action. If staff knew about the abuse taking place I am very concerned they let the abuse continue."

Sir Martin Narey was director general of the prison service when Husband's crimes came to light.

He said: "Without reservation I apologise to people at Medomsley who were harmed by Neville Husband. We should have stopped him much earlier."

Durham Police asked anybody with information to come forward.

For advice and support call BBC Action Line on 08000 566 065. Lines are open 24 hours a day and all calls are confidential. Calls are free from most landlines. Some networks and mobile operators will charge for these calls. 

MP welcomes Prime Minister's pledge to support police in Medomsley abuse inquiry

7:01pm Friday 7th February 2014 in News By Gavin Engelbrecht

 

MP welcomes Prime Minister's pledge to support police in Medomsley abuse inquiry

AN MP has welcomed the Prime Minister’s pledge to support Durham Police as they deal with inquiries into allegations of sexual and physical abuse at a former North-East detention centre.

North West Durham MP Pat Glass spoke after David Cameron gave his assurance that extra resources will be available to the force should a major incident happen while it carries out its investigation into Medomsley Detention Centre, in her constituency.

Her intervention came as police revealed they have now been contacted by 375 people since a new investigation was launched last August into claims of abuse at the Home Office-run centre, near Consett, between the late 1960s and mid 1980s.

Mrs Glass, who met last week with Durham Police and Crime Commissoner Ron Hogg and senior investigating officer Chief Superintendent Paul Goundry said: “I was told they have the resources they need.

“They are determined to see this inquiry through and leave no stone unturned. But Durham is a small force and it just needs some serious incident. . .

“Although it wouldn’t stop the investigation, it would have an impact on the speed at which victims can be seen.

“We want to ensure that should it become necessary, Durham Police have the resources to keep their specialist team in place until the conclusion of the inquiry.”

During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Mr Cameron said: “I think some of our smaller police forces are hugely capable, but when they are doing very complex and large investigations like this on occasion they do need help and support - so we should make sure that is available.”

Mrs Glass said today (Friday, February 7): “The Prime Minister said twice that he was committed to that and once I got it in writing on Hansard that he is committed – that is all I wanted.”

An earlier investigation led to a former catering officer at the centre, Neville Husband being jailed in 2003 for abusing a number of young men over a period of time. He died in 2010, following his release from prison.

The centre closed in 1988 and later reopened as the privately-run Hassockfield Secure Training Centre in 1999.

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Police say 200 more people may have been victims of detention centre abuse

Prison officer Neville Husband, who died in 2010, is feared to have abused hundreds of detainees at Medomsley, Co Durham

• Eric Allison and Simon Hattenstone
• theguardian.com,  
• Friday 7 February 2014 19.55 GMT
• Photograph: Rex 

David Cameron has promised help if necessary for Durham police, who have now been contacted by a total of 375 potential victims.

 

Durham police have confirmed that more than 200 potential new victims have come forward to detectives investigating sexual and physical abuse at a now defunct detention centre.

The development follows an investigation by the Guardian that revealed a prison officer at the centre, Neville Husband, may have abused hundreds of detainees over a 17-year period.

Husband was jailed for 10 years in 2003 for committing sex attacks on youngsters at Medomsley detention centre, near Consett, County Durham, in the 1970s and 1980s.

Husband, who died in 2010, had been in sole charge of the kitchens at Medomsley. The Guardian investigation in 2012 revealed he had raped boys on a daily basis, while other staff allegedly turned a blind eye.

Durham police said there had now been 232 new calls from potential victims, bringing the total to 375. A spokesman said: "All those who have rung will be seen by an officer over the coming weeks and steered towards the appropriate support and counselling."

Earlier this week, the prime minister assured the North West Durham MP, Pat Glass, that the Home Office would support local police if necessary while detectives were carrying out the investigations into what happened at the former detention centre.

Glass said: "The prime minister will be aware of the investigation into the systematic beating, abuse and rape of young men and boys at the former Medomsley detention centre in my constituency.

"The victim toll has now topped 300 and this is the biggest investigation ever undertaken by Durham Constabulary – a relatively small police force.

"Will the prime minister commit that if it proves necessary, his home secretary will meet with the police and crime commissioner, the chief constable and myself to ensure that the highly successful team has the resources it needs to see this investigation to its conclusion? The victims deserve no less."

Cameron replied: "I am very happy to give the honourable lady that assurance, because I don't support the police merger ideas of the past.

"I think some of our smaller police forces are hugely capable, but when they are doing very complex and large investigations like this on occasion they do need help and support – so we should make sure that is available."

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‘I thought I’d die in there’

10:11am Friday 7th February 2014 in Leader  By Chris Webber, Reporter (Stockton/Hartlepool)

 

WITHIN THOSE WALLS: Medomsley Young Offenders’ Institution, near Consett, where Rod Jones, says he was brutalised and raped 

 

A ROPE was thrown onto Rod Jones’ cell floor. A prison officer pointed at it and stared at the battered teenage version of Mr Jones.

“Either you f***ing hang yourself or we’ll f***ing do it for you,” he sneered. “The bars are a good place to start. You’re only a ****. You can disappear.”

Mr Jones, then only 16 or 17, took the threat seriously.

He had already been beaten many times in various institutions for boys and young offenders, even an adult prison, across the North- East and Yorkshire.

Now he had been sent to MedomesleyYoung Offenders’ Institution, back then – in the 1960s – a new dention centre near Consett, designed to give a “short, sharp, shock” to teenagers and young men on the road to criminality.

Mr Jones doesn’t argue he didn’t deserve a sentence. He’d broken into a factory in Middlesbrough and got caught. Bang to rights.

But he says the abuse he, and many other boys, suffered was horrific.

“From day one in Medomsley I was beaten,” says the 67-year-old charity worker. “Every single day I got at least a bat or two. Not just from staff. They had favourites, hand-picked older boys, who would also beat you.”

Nowadays, Mr Jones runs a charity sending aid convoys to Romania. Back then, he was just another juvenile delinquent.

“We slept in a dormitory,” he recalls. “One night, when an officer shouted, ‘Get to bed,’ we all jumped in. I made the mistake of pulling the covers to my head. The screw shouted, ‘What are you doing with your hands.’ He thought I was messing with myself.

“The other lads were sniggering. ‘Drop your trousers.’ I had to drop them. He grabbed me by the privates and whacked me across them.

I turned and grabbed him, whacked him, the other lads had to drag me off; all the screws came running.
“That was the taboo – hitting a prison officer.

I knew was in for real trouble. I was beaten chronic. I just rolled into a ball and took the hiding of my life.”

His breakfast the next morning had been urinated and spat on and covered in salt. “Then it was, ‘Why haven’t you eaten your breakfast,’ and another bat,” he says.

His card was marked and worse trouble lay ahead. “There was a particularly vicious bloke, the worst of them. He knew I couldn’t climb the rope in gym and was forcing me up. I somehow got half way up when another one grabbed one of the other ropes. This one had leather at the bottom. He rolled it up and whacked me across the spine with it. I fell to the ground, he kicked me, and I went for him. This time the alarm bells went off. I could hear them all come running.

I knew something was going to happen.”

He says he was forced into a laundry basket before being repeatedly kicked over more than 200 yards, often upside down, to the “boot room.”

“I heard someone shout, ‘Get the hose.” They filled the basket full blast, I couldn’t breathe, must have gone unconscious. I woke up, sopping wet, in my cell.”

The next day Mr Jones’ nemesis came in with the rope and the threat. “I actually thought about doing it,” he says. “I thought I was a dead man.”

LATER, outside his cell, a friend from Middlesbrough was digging as part of his duties.

“I knew he was due out, so I shouted to him, “John, John, they’re going to kill me, get my dad.” But he said he was going to be arrested at the gate for a house burglary he’d done.”

Instead, with knowledge of the crime from his friend, Mr Jones confessed to having done the crime himself.
“Why? Because it was the only way out of Medomsley.”

In court, Mr Jones told magistrates he had committed the burglary. “I said, I’ve done loads and loads of burglaries. He took a look at me and said, “What’s happened to you?” Of course I didn’t tell him, but he sent me to borstal. I think, maybe it was an act of kindness. I remember thanking the two coppers.

“Anyway, I was taken to A Wing at Durham jail, which used to be for borstal boys. When I got there a screw said, ‘My friend tells me you like hitting prison officers’, and I got another kicking. But I survived.”

Survived to live the life of a brutalised but also brutal criminal. It took many years of violence and crime until Mr Jones finally found redemption and a peaceful life devoted to charity.

He finally turned his back on crime following the death of his son, also called Rodney, in a car crash when he was just 18. Determined to continue his son’s work helping people in Romania, Mr Jones went over to complete his last mission. When he saw the conditions Romanian orphans had to endure, the tough guy cried.
“I was in buckets I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

From that moment, Mr Jones dedicated his energy to raise funds to make life more bearable for the child victims of the former regime run by dictator Nicolae Caucsescu.

Now, he asks for justice for the victims of Medomsley, so that their lives may be more bearable.

Source

Over 230 new calls to Medomsley detectives

05/02/2014

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MORE than 200 potential new victims have contacted police investigating abuse at the former Medomsley Detention Centre, near Consett following widespread media publicity at the start of last week.

In August last year Durham Constabulary announced it was opening a new investigation into allegations that inmates at the Home Office-run centre were either sexually or physically abused during their time at Medomsley, between the late 1960’s and the mid-1980’s.

An earlier investigation led to a former catering officer at the centre, Neville Husband being jailed in 2003 for abusing a number of young men over a period of time. He died in 2010, following his release from prison.

Up to last Monday, 27th January police had spoken to 143 people, the vast majority of whom were victims who had not previously come forward. The total also included a small number of possible witnesses or callers who had information which might help the police enquiries.

Widespread media coverage of the investigation, including a special report on BBC1’s ‘Inside Out’ programme has since prompted a further 232 calls to police, bringing the total to 375.

All those who have rung over the last ten days will be seen by an officer over the coming weeks and steered towards the appropriate support and counselling.
        
“Our aims all along have been to gain a clearer picture of what happened at Medomsley, obtain evidence which may lead to a criminal prosecution and, most importantly, to leave the victims in a better place than they were before,” said Det Supt Paul GOUNDRY, the senior investigating officer.

“The recent coverage in the media has brought forward another 230 people who might not otherwise have contacted us. That suggests these victims have a level of confidence in us and feel we can help and support them.

“As our enquiries continue we are constantly learning, not only from the victims but all the agencies we are working alongside such as the NSPCC and the Sexual Assault Referral Centre at The Meadows. I think at the end of this investigation we will have some very important learning points to take on board, not just for ourselves but for the police nationally.”

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Medomsley Detention Centre sex probe leads to over 200 new victims

6 Feb 2014 09:48

More than 200 people have contacted police claiming to be the victims of horrific sexual abuse at the former Medomsley Detention Centre

Neville Husband

More than 200 people have contacted detectives claiming to be the victims of historic sex attacks at a North East borstal.

Durham Constabulary launched a new ­investigation into the Medomsley Detention Centre, near Consett, last year after receiving fresh allegations that inmates were being ferried off the grounds and sexually abused between the late 1960s and mid-80s.

It’s thought the scandal is one of the worst cases of mass scale abuse at a Government-run institution seen in this country, prompting the force to assign 80 detectives and the full resources of its Major Crimes Team to investigate the claims.

Senior prison officer Neville Husband was convicted of sex abuse offences in 2003. He died in 2010 following his release from prison.

Now detectives have confirmed that 232 complaints were made to police over the past week by victims claiming to be the subject of sexual abuse at the centre, bringing the total to 375.

Det Supt Paul Goundy said: “Our aims all along have been to gain a clearer picture of what happened at Medomsley, obtain evidence which may lead to a criminal prosecution and, most importantly, to leave the victims in a better place than they were before.

“The recent coverage in the media has brought forward another 230 people who might not otherwise have contacted us. That suggests these victims have a level of confidence in us and feel we can help and support them.

“As our enquiries continue we are constantly learning, not only from the victims but all the agencies we are working alongside, such as the NSPCC and the Sexual Assault Referral Centre at The Meadows.

“I think at the end of this investigation we will have some very important learning points to take on board, not just for ourselves but for the police nationally.”

It is thought hundreds of young boys – most of whom were behind bars for crimes that would today warrant a community penalty – were systematically targeted by sexual predators. Husband, a serial abuser of young boys, was convicted for sex attacks on nine youngsters in 2003. Before his prosecution and after 27 years’ working for the Prison Service he was a minister with the Brighton Road and Cromer Avenue URC churches in Gateshead.

He was jailed for 12 years and his accomplice Lesley Johnson, who was a store man at the centre, for six. Johnson has also since died.

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Beaten, stripped and mentally tortured – Sunderland dad tells of abuse at Medomsley Detention Centre

editorial image

• by Craig Thompson

Published on the 06 February 2014

A SUNDERLAND dad today claimed he had been beaten senseless by abusive staff at the former detention centre.

Sunderlandecho.com reported yesterday how dozens of former inmates, from or currently living in Sunderland, Washington and Houghton, have been in touch with detectives investigating abuse at the former Medomsley Detention Centre.

In August last year Durham police announced it was opening a new investigation into allegations inmates at the Home Office-run centre were either sexually or physically abused during their time at Medomsley, between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s.

One victim, now 46, today described the horrific abuse which left him mentally scarred.

He said: “I was in there in 1985.

“On my first day, I was stripped and covered in powder to prevent lice before being marched into the centre and given a number.

“When I was asked to repeat back the number, I sniggered because I was nervous. I was then punched so hard in the stomach I couldn’t stand up straight.

“On another occasion, I’d dropped a Chewit paper on the ground and I was kept back. The officer was behind me and all I can remember is a flash and suddenly my head was being stotted off the wall.”

The man, who asked not to be identified, but still lives in Sunderland, had been sentenced to three months in the centre for causing criminal damage when he was 17.

He also recalled witnessing shocking levels of abuse on other inmates during his time there.

He said: “I was looking out of the window over the exercise yard when I saw one officer take a hockey stick and smash it over a young lad’s wrists, he must have broken them.

“Even though so many people were being attacked, no one said anything. You didn’t, you just got on with things.”

The man, who now has children of his own, told how he and other inmates had to “bunnyhop” from place to place.

  He said: “Bunnyhopping was where you had to crouch down, your hands behind your head, and jump from the dormitories to the canteen. Sometimes you would be in that position for hours at a time – it was agony.”

 The man claims he has been left mentally tortured by his time at Medomsley. He added: “Even after all these years, that place never leaves you. I’ve never talked about this for 30 years but no one who goes in there comes out the same.”

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