Medomsley Detention Centre officer was ‘prolific sex offender’

An officer at a notorious detention centre for young offenders was “possibly the most prolific sex offender in British history”, an inquiry has concluded.

Neville Husband was jailed in 2003 for abusing five teenagers at Medomsley in County Durham, with a further 338 sexual offences attributed to him in the inquiry’s report.

Hundreds of young men were physically and sexually attacked by prison staff from 1961 to 1987. A Prisons and Probation Ombudsman report lists a string of missed opportunities by the Home Office, police and prison managers to stop the abuse.

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

The report said inmates who had complained were not believed and were effectively left to report abuse to the people who had assaulted them.

It warned what had happened was a “cautionary tale” and the mistreatment of the vulnerable was “still an issue” throughout the youth custody estate.

Medomsley housed young men aged 17-21 for periods of three or six months for often low-level offending.

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

Sexual assaults often centred on the institution’s kitchen, where guard Husband is said to have raped young inmates. He was later convicted of sex offences and died in 2010.

Chief Constable Rachel Bacon said the report made for “extremely difficult reading” and exposed “shameful failings by police at that time”.

“On behalf of Durham Constabulary I wish to publicly offer my sincerest apologies to those victims and their families for those failures,” she said.

“Thousands of young men were let down by the system and are continuing to live with the wounds left by that abuse. Those victims were, and remain, our primary concern.”

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

The report said

• police dismissed allegations of abuse without even recording them and would threaten inmates with being sent back to Medomsley if they persisted
• leadership staff were either aware of abuse and therefore complicit, or lacked curiosity and were therefore incompetent
• victims had never had a public apology – and all bodies should “examine their organisational consciences”
• the deaths of two young inmates, within a few months of each other in 1981-2, were “arguably avoidable”

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

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

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

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

“For that first week I was there, I was just continually seeing violence and cruelty and spitefulness,” he said. “I still have problems now with flashbacks.”

Mr Usher said that in “all likelihood” Husband was sexually abusing vulnerable young men for his “entire professional life”.

He said there were allegations against him at Portland prison before he was posted to Medomsley, but those were “not investigated properly”.

“They weren’t dealt with, and had they been, the hundreds of victims that he subjected to appalling sexual violence at Medomsley would never have happened,” Mr Usher said.

He added there were further allegations against Husband when he went to work at HMP Deerbolt and HMP Frankland.

“He was prolific and in the entirety of that time he became confident that he would never be caught,” Mr Usher said.

“He was an arch manipulator, a powerfully-built man, who bullied not only the detainees, but also the staff. “

Mr Usher said that Husband remaining undetected for that long “required the silence of many”, including members of staff, who were “aware that there was something very seriously wrong in the kitchens”.

“Jokes were made about it amongst staff and is some cases detainees were warned by members of staff not to apply for jobs in the kitchens,” he said.

Mr Usher also said the regional management of Medomsley and the board of visitors were “entirely ineffective”, with evidence showing visits were more “social”, rather than “trying to dig behind the regime that was being delivered and find out what’s actually going on”.

The inquiry, which was ordered by the Ministry of Justice, said Medomsley had existed for 26 years “effectively beyond the reach of the law”.

As well as Husband’s later convictions, storeman Leslie Johnson was jailed in 2005 for sex attacks on inmates, while other guards were jailed for physical assaults and misconduct in a public office.

In an open letter Labour Under-Secretary for Justice Jake Richards apologised on behalf of the government and said he would create a panel of experts to identify where changes were needed in youth custody safeguarding.

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

“Please be assured that ministers and government officials are taking this extremely seriously and we will put the voice of victims at the centre of our work moving forward.

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

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