Detention centre staff ignored decades of physical and sexual abuse, inquiry finds

Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Adrian Usher said successive wardens at Medomsley Detention Centre, which operated in County Durham from 1961 to 1987, were either complicit or incompetent in the scandal.

Mr Usher has made the comments in a 202-page report he complied into the conduct of staff at the detention centre.

The report found that men aged 17-21, who had been convicted of relatively minor crimes, were put in the centre by staff to deter them from re-offending, and the experience was meant to be unpleasant.

Victims were physically abused from the moment they arrived, being attacked when they bathed, during their strip search and physical education, and whilst working.

The scale of the abuse meant the centre’s leaders 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.

Part of the inquiry focused on officer Neville Husband, described by Mr Usher “as possibly the most prolific sex offender in British history”.

Powerfully-built Husband, who died in 2010, was thought to have groomed and attacked hundreds of trainees in Medomsley’s kitchens.

He was finally convicted of sexual assault and was jailed in 2003 and again in 2005.

Mr Usher stated: “The illegitimate power imbalance that existed between Husband and the trainees and other staff further flourished within a culture of collusion and silence from other employees.

“Husband used this power with devastating effect.”

The inquiry spoke to 79 victims and witnesses.

More than 2,000 former inmates came forward to give their testimony to Operation Seabrook, a police investigation which led to five retired officers being convicted of abuse in 2019.

More to follow…