Victims of unlawful restraint should be able to sue, says Crae
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
A children's charity is calling on the government to go through records and identify children who may have been unlawfully restrained to allow them the opportunity to take legal action.
Carolyne Willow, Crae’s national co-ordinator, said: "We have tried everything possible to persuade ministers that former child detainees who were unlawfully restrained in STCs [secure training centres] should be given the opportunity to challenge their abusive treatment. These children were held in regimes where unlawful restraint and the brutal nose, rib and thumb 'distractions' were common practice.
"Even the managers and the Youth Justice Board claimed to be confused about the law. It’s a disgrace that no attempt has been made to find these child victims. We are talking about hundreds, if not thousands, of children."
Details of unlawful restraint practices have emerged over recent years.
The second inquest into the death of 14 year-old Adam Rickwood, which concluded last month, found that a "nose distraction" technique used on him was unlawful.
A 2004 review undertaken by the former head of the juvenile panel of the Prison Service, David Waplington, found children were routinely subject to restraint to gain compliance, in contravention of the legal rules governing STCs.
An answer to a parliamentary question last year revealed that 28 members of staff in STCs were disciplined, suspended or dismissed following a restraint incident between 2006 and 2010.
Willow added: "Children have been systematically abused under the watch of the YJB and others who should have protected them.
"The very least the authorities can now do is check through their records and identify children who were unlawfully restrained and help them seek redress."
