'My disabled son was punched' - how a CCTV error exposed major abuse scandal

BBC News

6 hours ago

Warning - this story contains details some people may find distressing.When Glynn Brown was told that his severely disabled adult son, Aaron, may have been assaulted by staff at a psychiatric hospital, he was shocked and suspicious.He wanted to know exactly what had happened, but could not ask Aaron, who is non-verbal and whom he describes as having the mental age of a two-year-old.Glynn was told there was no video evidence because CCTV cameras, installed throughout Muckamore Abbey Hospital six months earlier, had never been switched on.But this was far from the case.
In fact, what police officers found when they visited the hospital in September 2017, triggered the UK's largest adult safeguarding investigation and made the hospital one of the nation's biggest ever crime scenes - according to data released by the police.Unbeknown to staff, the CCTV cameras had been mistakenly left running for the six months since their installation, according to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).A staggering 300,000 hours of footage was discovered - equivalent to 34 years' worth. It revealed not only the alleged assault on Aaron, but hundreds of other incidents carried out by hospital staff.However, almost eight years after the discovery, no cases have come to trial and the hospital has not been closed. A separate public inquiry is also yet to report back.What is more, the patients' families still have not been allowed to see the CCTV footage.
BBC File on 4 Investigates has now obtained descriptions of what the footage shows.These include accounts of patients facing appalling cruelty and physical abuse, and being ignored while seriously unwell. They describe:
Vulnerable young adults being punched, kicked, dragged across floors, tipped off furniture and having balls kicked at themPossessions being taken away, shoes being dangled from one patient's ears and crisps packets pushed into another's faceEmotional abuse, including patients with severe learning disabilities being provoked into a reaction and then restrained and placed in seclusion
Families say they have been told they are unable to view the footage to prevent any prejudice of criminal investigations."We're left to conjure up these images in our own mind as to what has happened to our loved ones," Glynn told us.
The task of reviewing the footage was originally undertaken by Belfast Health Trust, even though it was responsible for managing Muckamore Abbey.It watched samples of the footage from eight different cameras, at up to eight times normal speed - an "impossible" task, according to one of the team.Hearing fresh horrifying details about Aaron's treatment became a regular occurrence for his father.Every Friday for months, Glynn received a grim phone call from the reviewers, detailing new incidents. He says he lost count at about 200."I was told there were videos of him being kicked, punched, trailed across the floor with his genitals exposed," he says.Eventually, the PSNI seized all the footage themselves and appeared astonished by what they found. After an early police review of the CCTV, officers said in just one of four wards with cameras being investigated, they had identified 1,500 "crimes".One of the most striking features of the descriptions of footage obtained by the BBC is the scale of staff neglect. Patients are frequently described as being ignored - even when seriously unwell.According to the descriptions, one was locked in a room for 18 hours on one day, and frequently left without access to a bathroom, despite being incontinent.
Muckamore Abbey is the largest systemic abuse case uncovered in the UK, according to Prof Andrew McDonnell, a clinical psychologist, who advised BBC Panorama on a 2011 investigation into abuse at Winterbourne View, a private hospital near Bristol."The sheer volume and scale of it - it dwarfs anything I've ever seen before," he says.Prof McDonnell says he can't understand why there is such little public awareness of the scandal outside Northern Ireland.A public inquiry, which sat from 2022 until March 2025, is expected to deliver its final report and recommendations later this year. However, it has attracted criticism from the families of patients, who do not think that hospital managers have been rigorously cross-examined.Glynn says it feels like nobody is to blame and nobody will be held culpable."We expected a robust interrogation," Glynn says. "We thought we'd find out all the answers to all our questions."
Disappointment has also been expressed that the inquiry did not call any of Northern Ireland's health ministers to give evidence - unlike the Post Office Inquiry where a minister was questioned over his refusal to meet campaigner Sir Alan Bates.The criticisms are echoed by public health expert Dr Gabriel Scally, who has led a number of reviews into health service failures, including an NHS panel on Winterbourne View.He agrees that managers have not been sufficiently held to account at the inquiry: "Imagine that the people representing the families and the patients cannot directly ask questions to the witnesses - I find that astounding."Dr Scally also says the inquiry has been needlessly protracted and has lost its "sense of outrage".In a statement, the Muckamore Abbey Inquiry expressed disappointment with Dr Scally's comments, ahead of the publication of its report. It said that lawyers for families of patients were able to make an application to the chair to ask witnesses questions directly - but none had been received.More than 180 witnesses had given evidence, including senior figures, a spokesperson said, and the decision not to call any ministers was the subject of a judicial review which had been dismissed.
Senior officials from Belfast Health Trust told the inquiry they did not have concerns about Muckamore prior to the CCTV footage being found.But the BBC has learned that three meetings were held between a health watchdog and the Trust over concerns about the hospital in the three years before the discovery.More than 200 substantiated reports of abuse were also recorded there in 2014, according to inspections by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority - although these may have included incidents where patients abused staff.Another parent, Catherine Fox, says she had repeatedly complained about the treatment of her daughter, Alicia, before the CCTV footage was discovered.She says Alicia was being kept in seclusion - something meant to be used only as a last resort - for hours on end, in a very small room. There was no bathroom and the buzzer to call staff did not work."I would say it was a form of torture, and it was also a form of instilling fear, and no-one else will convince me of anything different," she says.Catherine was so "horrified" she took her complaints to a Stormont health minister, who replied to say her concerns were a matter for the health trust.
Patients' families have formed a group called Action for Muckamore which campaigns for mandatory CCTV installation in places where vulnerable people are cared for - a move supported by PSNI.The force told the BBC that 122 people have been reported to Northern Ireland's Public Prosecution Service (PPS). To date, 38 people have been arrested - and some have gone on to plead not guilty. PSNI said it submitted its first file to the PPS more than five years ago.The PPS said 15 suspects are currently before the courts and that the progress of cases is also the responsibility of the defence and judges. In a statement to the BBC, the Belfast Health Trust apologised to families and said some staff have been dismissed. It said it would be inappropriate to comment on other specific issues while the inquiry was ongoing - as did the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.Meanwhile, Aaron is now in supported living and doing "brilliantly", according to Glynn.His son is able to go on trips every day, he says - especially to the donkey park and his beloved Nando's.Glynn is still frustrated that nobody yet has been held responsible for the events at Muckamore Abbey, but he carries on campaigning for justice."Once the world sees the footage," he says, "there will be a profound understanding of how bad and malign the scandal is."
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