'Horrifying' claims made against children's hospitals

Court documents reveal fresh allegations from 53 children

- REBECCA THOMAS

After apparently being subjected to a “brutal regime” of force-feeding and physical restraint, a 12-year-old girl was allegedly left wheelchair-bound and incontinent within days of being admitted to a scandal-hit mental health unit.

The girl, who had a brain disorder, had walked into Huntercombe Hospital in Maidenhead after being admitted following acts of self-harm. But, shortly after admission, her parents say she was wheeled into the visiting room to see them with"significant, fresh wounds to the tops of her feet from restraint".

The child, who remained in a wheelchair for the majority of her nearly two-year detention, alleges she had begged her parents to take her home - simply texting them the word "help".

Hers is just one of the dozens of allegations in new legal claims made on behalf of vulnerable children sent by the NHS to four Huntercombe Group hospitals, where patients say they were strip-searched, sexually and racially abused by staff and over-medicated into a "comatose" state.

The allegations are set out in thousands of pages of documents filed on behalf of 53 former patients. Other claims include:

• Young girls with a history of sexual abuse who say they were restrained by male staff, forced to be in their underwear, and use the toilet or shower in front of male staff

• One patient who alleged they were groped by a male worker while restrained

• A black child who says staff used racial slurs and made monkey noises at them

• Claims that hospital walls were covered in blood stains, dried vomit and rotten food

• Families who allege they were barred from seeing their children and prevented from being involved in their care

Children's commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza told