Medomsley Detention Centre was a prison for young male offenders near Consett in Durham, England, from 1961 until the late 1980s, where more than 1,800 living former inmates have reported sexual and physical abuse by staff.
[10] Medomsley held young males from Northern England and Scotland[11] and was one of several prisons intended to separate youths from older criminals[6] where former inmates have since reported sexual, physical and emotional abuse, leading to addiction and suicide.
[12] Detective Adrian Green who led Operation Seabrook said Margaret Thatcher's severe "short, sharp shock" policy for punishing young offenders may have been used as a cover for abuse by Medomsley officers.
[13] The policy involved incarcerating boys convicted of minor misdemeanors in what have since been described as "sadistic, brutal concentration camps", where inmates were routinely humiliated and violently and sexually assaulted.
During the day, inmates were arbitrarily sworn at by guards and were kicked and punched for frivolous reasons such as insufficiently rolled up sleeves or alleged uncombed hair.
[14] In 2014, North West Durham's MP, Pat Glass, criticised the phrase "short, sharp shock" because it created "a culture in which a group of people is seen as less than the rest", which is when "things start to go wrong".
[15] The wide variety of physical abuse and humiliation incidents included detainees being dragged from the toilets semi-naked for not finishing soon enough[18] or for not preparing food quickly,[19] being dragged by the hair during a beating,[20] being force-fed salt for speaking during a meal, being punched for not saying "sir" to officers, almost drowning while locked in a box that was filled with water similar to water-boarding,[21] being knocked from a 20-foot height then forced to walk with a broken back[1] and being kicked, stamped on and pelted with heavy objects.
"[29] In 2019, Operation Seabrook's lead investigator Detective Adrian Green found it "likely" other staff at Medomsley were aware "that physical and potentially sexual abuse was occurring" and "kept quiet about it".
[18] The five – Christopher Onslow, John McGee, Brian Johnson Greenwell, Alan Bramley and Kevin Blakely – received jail terms totalling 17 years and 11 months.
[40] Detective Goundry promised to "put victims at the heart of the inquiry" and asked for "new information about Medomsley and any abuse that occurred either inside, or when inmates were taken off-site.
The detective now leading the investigation, Chief Superintendent Adrian Green, explained that perpetrators were identified by showing victims old photographs of Medomsley staff and "timelines of nicknames".
[20] in which five men were convicted of frequently physically attacking boys in Medomsley, causing severe bruises, bleeding, broken bones and unconsciousness.
[45] Detective Green expected "further charges [...] imminently" and asked other living victims, including those "who have suffered abuse in other establishments, not just Meadomsley" to contact Durham Police.
[49] Over 1,800 former detainees reported sexual and extreme physical abuse by officers in Medomsley,[1] including daily rapes[50][51] and frequent severe beatings under a "culturally violent regime" that traumatised them for life.
[12] When jailing three officers Judge Howard Crowson said victims "felt they could not complain, and those who did were told [that] to continue their complaints could result in a return to Medomsley.
[1] Investigators said prison officers inflicted "immeasurable suffering and lifelong damage"[53] upon "the most vulnerable kids in society"[9] causing "mental scars which have lasted a lifetime"[41] and that reporting the abuse "has taken courage".
[6] David Alan Brown was physically abused and prevented from attending his grandmother's funeral during his three months in Medomsley in 1981 for a crime he didn't commit.
However, all records of his imprisonment in Medomsley had been destroyed, making him feel like he "was going crazy" and leaving him to search for and rely on a detailed diary by his father, which had almost been dumped, as evidence.
He experienced physical abuse daily and recalled being knocked to the ground with "a massive blow to my kidneys", then hit on the head by a prison guard for having a loose buckle.
"[24] He sought an enquiry, together with his local MP for East Kilbride, Michael McCann, who wrote "a formal request" for a full inquiry to Justice Secretary Ken Clarke.
"[22] Eric Sampson, who was abused in Medomsley when he was 17, said it was "a hellhole", "worse than a concentration camp",[39] "run on violence, every day, morning, afternoon and night"[54] and "the most shocking, horrible place I've ever been in my life".
[39] Barry Segar, who was incarcerated in Medomsley when he was a boy, revealed in 2019 that he still suffers "nightmares" and is still too afraid to leave his home because "going places" causes recurring "flashbacks ... my body shakes".
The officer Brian Johnson Greenwell forced Skillen to pretend in hospital that the injury Onslow inflicted was caused by an accidental fall.
[3] Under Operation Seabrook, five more officers — Onslow, McGee, Bramley and Blakely — were convicted in late 2018 and early 2019 of physically abusing inmates[20] and received prison sentences totalling nearly 18 years.
[60] Operation Seabrook's leader Detective Chief Superintendent Adrian Green said Medomsley officers "abused their position", inflicting "immeasurable suffering and lifelong damage".
Its leader, Northumbria Police's Detective Inspector Simon Orton, explained in 2003, "There could be a lot more [victims of Neville Husband], but I would anticipate there are people who have put it behind them and would simply want to leave it that way.
[3] He had also been investigated for smuggling pornography into prison a decade before starting in Medomsley[34] and was arrested in 1969 for possessing pornographic images of teenage boys, while working in Portland Borstal, Dorset.
[35] He kept thousands of child pornography images[34] on computers in his home and church office along with sex aids and sexually explicit novels and videos.
[1] When this overweight inmate became stuck on an obstacle course net, Onslow and a second officer pelted him with rocks and bricks, causing him to fall backwards 20 feet to the ground, crushing three vertebrae.
[5] In 2019, legal experts also sought a full open inquiry because they believe some instances of abuse in Medomsley were severe enough to have violated Article 3 of the Human Rights Act, which prohibits "torture" and "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."