Medomsley detention center officer was a ‘prolific sex offender’

An official at a notorious detention center for young offenders was “arguably the most prolific sex offender in British history”, an investigation has concluded.

Neville Husband was jailed in 2003 for abusing five teenagers in Medomsley, County Durham, where hundreds of young people were subjected to physical and sexual assault by prison staff between 1961 and 1987. He died in 2010.

A report by Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Adrian Usher catalogs a series of missed opportunities to stop abuse by the Home Office, police forces and prison managers.

Durham Police apologized to the victims, while the Ministry of Justice also apologized on “behalf of all governments, past and present”.

The report said that inmates who had complained were not believed and were in practice allowed to report abuse to the people who had attacked them.

He warned that what happened was a “warning” and that mistreatment of the vulnerable “continues to be a problem” across the youth custody estate.

Medomsley housed youths aged between 17 and 21 for periods of three or six months for often low-level offences.

It was intended to give inmates a “short, sharp shock”, but the investigation found that physical violence and summary punishments were endemic.

The sexual assaults often centered in the institution’s kitchen, where the guard’s husband is said to have raped young inmates. He was later convicted of sexual crimes and died in 2010.

Police chief Rachel Bacon said the report made “extremely difficult reading” and exposed “shameful failings by the police at the time”.

“On behalf of Durham Police, I wish to publicly offer my sincere apologies to the victims and their families for these failures,” he said.

“Thousands of young people were let down by the system and continue to live with the wounds left by that abuse. Those victims were, and continue to be, our primary concern.”

In the report, Usher said: “I have chosen to omit many of the most egregious details of…the abuse, but I believe it is necessary to include enough to make clear the extent of the horrors that some of these young men endured.”

He said “the silence of many” was needed for “the worst excesses of sexual abuse to continue for so long undetected.”

The report said

• Police dismissed the abuse allegations without even recording them and would threaten inmates with being sent back to Medomsley if they persisted.
• Leadership staff were either aware of the abuse and therefore complicit, or lacked curiosity and therefore incompetent.
• victims had never received a public apology – and all agencies should “examine their organizational conscience”
• the deaths of two young inmates, within a few months of each other between 1981 and 1982, were “possibly avoidable”

Some of those who served time at Medomsley said the experience haunted them to this day.

Peter Toole, from Newcastle, was posted there in 1985.

“You didn’t come in for even a minute and the abuse started,” he said. “I just thought ‘this is it, this is Medomsley, go ahead and take it on the chin’.”

Jimmy Coffey went to Medomsley when he was 18 in 1979.

“During the first week I was there, I continually saw violence, cruelty and bitterness,” he said. “I still have trouble with flashbacks.”

The investigation, ordered by the Ministry of Justice, said Medomsley had existed for 26 years “effectively outside the reach of the law”.

In addition to Husband’s later convictions, warehouseman Leslie Johnson was jailed in 2005 for sexual attacks on inmates, while other guards were jailed for physical assaults and misconduct in a public office.

In an open letter, Labor Undersecretary for Justice Jake Richards apologized on behalf of the government and said he would set up an expert panel to identify where changes were needed to youth custody protections.

“I want to acknowledge that none of this would have come to light without those who bravely came forward to report the abuse,” she said.

“Rest assured, ministers and government officials are taking this very seriously and we will put the voices of victims at the heart of our work going forward.

“I know these words cannot change what happened in the past, but I hope they demonstrate this government’s determination to take appropriate action.”

• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, you can visit the BBC action line for information and support