Contained in the 200 pages of the report into Medomsley Detention Centre are the most harrowing truths about one of the most disturbing chapters in British justice history.
In the early 1960s, the idea of a ‘short, sharp shock’ was popular in post-war Britain; delinquent boys as young as 16 given a few weeks of military style discipline to set them back on the straight and narrow.
These were the days when children were still being caned in schools so some rough justice for problem teens wasn’t just acceptable, it was warmly welcomed.
Except it wasn’t just a bit of rough justice. The horrors of Medomsley stayed locked inside its iron gates throughout its entire 26 years of operation.
The closest police station to the centre was just two miles away. After release, some detainees went straight there to report the physical and sexual abuse they’d endured while inside.
They were called liars, and threatened with being either hit or sent back.
It was a reaction that today’s report has found was shared from the top to the bottom; probation officers, social workers, prison guards, centre inspectors – all of them dismissing claims, believing instead that the men in prison uniforms were guilty of no more than dishing out a well-earned clip round the ear.
It took decades for the truth to finally be believed. Durham Police – now in deep apology for its ‘shameful’ failures over Medomsley – launched a full criminal investigation.
Charges were brought and the former detainees, now grown men, gave evidence in court.
It was horrific to listen to. Stories of beatings regardless of good or bad behaviour.
Freezing baths, heads shaved so closely it drew blood, naked bunny jumps, prison guards betting on fights between inmates.
The report’s author compared it to being "like something out of the 16th century".
Then there was the sexual abuse. Neville Husband, in charge of Medomsley’s kitchens, unmasked in this report as “possibly one of the most prolific sexual offenders in British history”.
For years, Husband had free rein to pick and choose his victims, which ran into the many hundreds.
It’s estimated that Husband raped two to three young men per day throughout his 16 years at the centre.
First-hand testimony shared with ITV News Tyne Tees reveals that Husband would take these young men out of the centre to houses to be abused by multiple men.
One victim, now in his 60s, still cannot bear the smell of cigar smoke or body odour without having to sit down and practice breathing exercises until his fear passes.
Husband was offered many chances of lucrative promotions within the prison service, often to adult jails. He refused them all – and we know why.
It was a horror story, made worse by the report’s findings that the people who could have stopped it chose instead to look the other way
Why? How could they? Maybe taking on the establishment was just too daunting. Maybe it was fear of themselves becoming a target or being mocked for being ‘soft’.
We’ll never really know.
We do know though – 37 years after Medomsley’s doors slammed shut for good – these lads were telling the truth from the start. And tragically for too many of them who’ve been left with unbearable memories that keep them awake at night, the sentence of Medomsley has never really ended.
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