Victims of unlawful restraint techniques used in young offender institutes in the 1990s and 2000s may now be able to claim compensation after a landmark ruling in the High Court.
In a case brought by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE), Mr Justice Foskett found that government agencies such as the Youth Justice Board had failed to stop unlawful force being used against children and young people held at Secure Training Centres (STC) between 1998 and 2008.
The judge’s ruling follows the death of teenager Adam Rickwood who died after being unlawfully restrained at Hassockfield STC at Medomsley near Consett, Co Durham, in August 2004.
Adam, who was found hanging in his cell, was the youngest person to die in custody in modern times.
A jury at a second inquest into his death, held 12 months ago in Easington, Co Durham, found that Adam, from Burnley, Lancashire, had been unlawfully killed.
The inquest found that at the time of Adam’s death, the Youth Justice Board should have been aware the method of restraint was being used unlawfully, which was a “serious system failure” at the secure training centre.
Precise numbers of children and young people subject to these illegal restraint techniques are not known, but it was estimated by Mr Justice Foskett that as many as 25% of restraint incidents may have been unlawful.
Physical injuries known to have been suffered by children and young people include serious cuts, fractures, loss of consciousness, concussions and damage to internal organs, with around 300 separate incidents involving serious or life threatening injuries between 2006 and 2008 alone.
In summing up what he described as a “sorry tale” of a decade of abuse of vulnerable children, Mr Justice Foskett said: “The children and young persons sent to [Secure Training Centres] were sent there because they had acted unlawfully and to learn to obey the law, yet many of them were subject to unlawful actions during their detention. I need, I think, say no more.”
The CRAE case was seeking to obtain the details of the hundreds of former inmates of these STCs, in order to advise them of their rights to seek compensation for the injuries and unlawful treatment they suffered.
Although the Court would not disclose the private information of those individuals, Mr Justice Foskett said CRAE had “served well the interests of those for whom it is concerned by shining a light into a corner that might otherwise have remained dark”.
The judge did not order the Secretary of State to inform the hundreds, possibly thousands, of victims of the abuse at these STCs of their potential right to claim compensation, but he did advise that Ministers should “consider whether something ought to be done”.
Vicki Wright, Personal Injury Solicitor and Associate at Swain & Co Solicitors, said former child prisoners may now have a claim.
“This case has undoubtedly paved the way for children held in STCs between 1998 and 2008, and maybe even beyond, to claim compensation for assaults, trespass to the person, and breach of their human rights,” she said.
Mr Justice Foskett concluded in his judgment that child victims of the brutal treatment at STCs may simply not have known that they could complain about their treatment, accepting it as “part and parcel” of the routine for young offenders. However, the judge clearly indicated that if just one former young offender can prove in court that he or she was unlawfully restrained, many hundreds of others will then be able to go on to claim compensation.
Hassockfield STC is one of four secure training centres in England providing secure care for children and young people from 12 to 17 years old who are on awaiting trial or have been sentenced.
Unlawful restraint techniques are understood to have been used by all four Centres, including Medway STC in Chatham, Kent, which was the first STC to open in 1998. Rainsbrook STC near Rugby was then opened in 1999, and the final STC, Oakhill, was opened in 2004.
All four centres remain open, although unlawful restraint techniques such as “distracting” a misbehaving child by causing pain through a sharp blow to the nose or ribs were banned in 2008
Hassockfield death ruling paves way for compensation claims