It took a long time, but I never thought we'd get an apology

MEDOMSLEY VICTIMS ON 40 YEAR WAIT FOR APOLOGY FOR ABUSE THEY SUFFERED

- By SOPHIE DOUGHTY

WITH just one word, his 40 years of torment finally came to an end.

David Alan Brown says he can end 2025 with closure after receiving an apology for the abuse he suffered at Medomsley Detention Centre.

Thousands of young men were physically or sexually assaulted at the County Durham facility, which operated between 1961 and 1987.

Details of their harrowing ordeals were laid bare in a new report published by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) in November. And, after the damning dossier revealed how nothing was done to stop the horrifying treatment of young inmates, despite Durham Constabulary and the Prison Service being told what was going on, both the Government and the police force issued public apologies to the victims.

David, who is known as Alan to his friends, was 18 when he was sent to Medomsley, after being convicted of a burglary he said he did not commit. During his three months at the detention centre in 1981, he says he was subjected to “extreme violence” at the hands of bullying prison officer Christopher Onslow, who was finally jailed in 2019.

Like many other former Medomsley inmates David, from Lemington, Newcastle, has spent the rest of his life haunted by the horrors he experienced and witnessed during the short time he was incarcerated.

But now, after seeing details of the authorities’ apology printed on the front page of the Chronicle, David says he can finally move on.