PPO report: Former Detainees of Medomsley were subject to “systemic failings by authorities”

PPO report: Finds that Former Detainees of Medomsley Detention Centre were subject to “systemic failings by authorities”

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has published a report yesterday (12th November 2025) detailing the horrific accounts of abuse at Medomsley Detention Centre. The Ombudsman clearly states that authorities failed in their duty to keep detainees safe. The report has reviewed new evidence which shows that authorities could have stopped the violence at Medomsley and condemns their lack of action.

Meodmsley Detention Centre was a senior youth detention centre located in Durham between 1961 to 1987. It was designed to hold offenders aged between 17 and 21 who had committed minor offences.

The report investigated what the authorities, which include the police and the home office, knew about the abuse that took place at Medomsley, whether there were opportunities for them to have intervened and what action they took when faced with these opportunities. In completing the investigation, the Ombudsman reviewed 8000 evidence documents and interviewed 74 witnesses.

The report highlights the culture of systemic physical abuse, which began when the detainee first arrived at Medomsley.  The lack of leadership or governance meant that “violence was able to become a legitimate part of the detention centre regime without any repercussions.”

The report goes on to say, “ Leaders at every level at Medomsley, including the warden, failed in their duty to protect the interest of those under their charge. Either staff in leadership roles were aware of the abuse, in which case they were complicit, or they lacked dedication and professional curiosity to such an extent as to not be professionally competent.”

Abuse at Medomsley extended to sexual abuse of detainees by the Officers. The report describes that the sexual abuse suffered by detainees was “painful and degrading” and accompanied by ““extreme violence and acts of a sadistic nature.”

Rightly, in my view, the report concludes that for the severity of the physical and sexual abuse to have taken place, and to have been able to continue for so long, required many people to keep silent and for the perpetrators to have power and authority.

“The abuse at Medomsley continued unchallenged for the entire 26 years of its operation. The knowledge of abuse by the Prison Service, the police, the Home Office and other organisations of authority was ignored and dismissed. Sending these young me to Medomsley was supposed to instil them with more ordered, law-abiding lives. The authorities failed in their duty to keep detainees safe.

The report acknowledges that the boys who were sent to Medomsley have never received a public apology and that the trauma they suffered “effectively became a life sentence.” It is hoped by the Ombudsman that the report will enable detainees to know that have now been heard and believed.

It must be remembered that the violence experienced at Medomsley, was not just contained to Medomsley but was repeated at other detention centres throughout the country, such as Whatton, Eastwood Park and Kirklevington.

The Ombudsman makes considerations for the authorities who were referred to in the report.  They have been asked to consider why there is not an independent party that asks children about their custodial experience through a safeguarding lens and why the complaints process for children in custody remains the same today as it was when Medomsley was in operation?

The report is welcomed, but there are questions that remain unanswered; why did the two police investigations in 2003 and 2005 fail to uncover the level of abuse at Medomsley, who were the Governors who allowed the abuse to take place for a period of 26 years, and importantly the psychological and physical affect the abuse has had on former detainees must be considered.

For this reason, a public enquiry is still needed as is a public apology to ensure that these men receive the justice they deserve.