Medomsley: British state supplied victims to ‘worst sex offender in history’ as endemic abuse continued unchecked for 26 years at detention centre
The state has provided victims to “the worst sex offender in our history” as systemic failures allowed widespread physical and sexual abuse in youth detention centers to continue unchecked, a major report has found.
Survivors of Medomsley Detention Center deserve a public apology after leaders at all levels found they had “failed to do their duty” to protect detainees, a prison watchdog has said.
The centre, which operated from a former Victorian orphanage in Durham from 1961 to 1987, subjected men and boys aged between 17 and 21 to brutal physical and psychological abuse, often starting with a punch to the face at the prison gates.
Violence, part of the Margaret Thatcher-era policy of hitting low-level criminals with a “short, sharp shock”, became an established part of the military-style regime, where boys were beaten, strip-searched, humiliated and made to undergo punitive routine chores and drills.
Hundreds found themselves subjected to horrific sexual abuse, including in kitchens where predatory Neville Husband raped two or three young men a day.
In a new 202-page report almost 40 years after its closure, prisons and probation ombudsman (PPO) Adrian Usher found allegations of abuse at Medomsley reached the ears of government ministers, the police and the Prison Service but were “ignored or dismissed”.
The Ombudsman said successive guards were either complicit or “lacking such dedication and professional curiosity as to be professionally competent”.
He identified dozens of specific cases where individuals tried to speak out but authorities failed to act. Mr Usher found this allowed Medomsley to operate “effectively beyond the reach of the law” for 26 years.
“I think you could argue that every day with the leadership at Medomsley is a missed opportunity,” he said. Independent.
“If any of these leaders had carried out their duties properly and proactively then they would have been saved from the abuse of 1000s of young people.”
‘I saw prisoners eating glass and nails to get out of Medomsley’
Some detainees became suicidal because they were subjected to severe physical, sexual and psychological abuse.
Survivors recalled that some resorted to eating glass and nails, or even drinking a bottle of brasso, to get out of Medomsley and into hospital.
But the abuse also extended to the infirmary, where they were punched while lying in bed.
One of the detainees said: “The paramedic asked me what was wrong and I said I had the flu. He then told me I had ‘w****’ disease’. He glued paracetamol to my head with an Elastoplast and made me run in the snow until the paracetamol melted. I had the flu and it didn’t help me at all.”
Another was so desperate that he tried to take his own life. He said: “On my third day at Medomsley I tried to kill myself. I lay in bed all night thinking I couldn’t cope with the way the guards were treating me.
“I remember thinking that they would eventually kill me, so I decided not to give them that chance and do it myself first.”
Following two major investigations by Durham Constabulary, just eight former staff, including two for sexual offences, have been jailed for their part in the abuse.
Although the passage of time and loss of evidence will eliminate the possibility of further convictions, Mr Usher believes only a handful of those involved in the abuse will ever be held accountable.
As of September 2021, the government had already paid out £7.2 million to 1,651 victims of physical or sexual abuse at the centre. Since then, 2,852 victims have been contacted in claims, but the Ministry of Justice has not disclosed the total amount paid.
“I think we will have personnel who are still alive and will understand with their own conscience that they were not held accountable for what they did in those years,” he added.
He concluded that the fact that systemic sexual abuse had continued for so long would require “the silence of many.”
The husband, who ran the kitchens, was jailed in 2003 for sexually abusing five teenagers in the unit. He admitted four more attacks in 2005, but died free in 2010.
However, the report stated that if he had been held accountable for the full extent of his crime, he would have been sentenced to prison for the rest of his life.
The husband, described as a “chief manipulator” who intimidated other staff, was linked to 388 alleged sexual assaults out of a total of 549 documented sexual assault allegations at Medomsley.
Mr Usher said: “The husband, in my view, is probably the most prolific sex offender in our history. Sex offenders are normally constrained by a number of factors. The first is the availability of victims. And in this case the state was providing him with victims.”
“They are constrained by the fear of getting caught, and over time that fear has made Husband more and more confident that he won’t get caught. In fact, he hasn’t been caught throughout his entire professional career.
“And thirdly, with their own libido, in Koca’s case we have details of him raping two or three young men a day, and we know he worked there for 18 years.”
He said oversight and management were ineffective and visits by the board were treated as “more social events” for a cup of tea with the headteacher.
A total of nine guards manned the detention center during the operation. Mr Usher added: “I find it extraordinary that throughout the entire operation at Medomsley not one of these guards established sufficient trust for a young man to be able to tell what was happening to them in the kitchens.”
‘I didn’t think I would get through this’
Tony Regan had just turned 18 when he was sentenced to six months in Medomsley for two assaults.
Within hours of his arrival on 14 November 1976, he was attacked four times, starting from the centre’s gates.
“I was handcuffed to two little kids in the back of the police van,” said the decorator, now 67. Independent.
“They took us to Medomsley and when we got to the gates… the constable said to the screw ‘this guy likes to fight’ and the screw started punching us. I went to retaliate but there were two lads at either end of my arms.”
He spent the next four months “horrified” as he was forced to scrub the floors on his hands and knees, only to have officers walk by and deliberately scuff them with their boots.
On one occasion, two officers stood over his hands while he was kneeling while cleaning the floor.
“It used to be normal to get beaten,” he said, adding that it tended to attack the youngest detainees.
“To be fair, we deserved a punishment; we didn’t deserve the beatings we received,” he said.
“The first two weeks were the scariest, you know. I didn’t think I’d make it through it to tell you the truth.”
She describes herself as “one of the lucky ones” because she had no knowledge of sexual abuse taking place in the kitchen.
He said it was a “disgrace” that so few prison staff were punished for mistreatment but feared officers were “closed in ranks”.
He added: “They must be held accountable. Come forward and tell the truth; tell what happened and who else was involved.”
“Full justice has never been achieved. There must be a public inquiry.”
Although Mr Usher did not make any official recommendations, he warned that the complaints process for children in custody was the same today.
The watchdog also questioned why there was no independent party proactively speaking to children in custody about safety issues.
“We know that when children are abused they are likely to disclose it to people they know, but family members are currently unable to complain to the prison about their loved one’s treatment,” he added. “And I think there’s a threshold of allegations where that shouldn’t be the case.”
He believes the victims deserve a public apology and is calling on organizations including the police, the probation service, the prison service and the state to examine their consciences.
Andrea Coomber KC, chief executive of the Howard League for Sentencing Reform, called on those in public life to read the “excruciating” details of the investigation, adding: “Thousands of young people’s lives have been ruined under a shroud of secrecy, with many of those with the power to stop it either contributing to the torture or turning the other way.”
He said the damning findings should warn everyone about what can happen in places of detention if proper security measures are not taken.
“Almost 40 years after the closure of Medomsley, tolerance for questionable day-to-day inadequacies in the treatment of children in custody still persists,” he added.
Pia Sinha, chief executive of the Prison Reform Foundation, also called on detainees to reflect on the report, adding: “Today’s deeply distressing report is a sobering reminder of the importance of transparency, protection, oversight and accountability in our most closed institutions.
“The abuse suffered by boys and young men in Medomsley represents a profound failure to care and protect, and it is vital that these facts are recognized and remembered.”
The Department of Justice has been contacted for comment.
