The road towards justice and change

Hey there,

A few months ago you may remember I profiled the work of the late Guardian prisons correspondent, Eric Allison, and his friend and collaborator Simon Hattenstone. Well I wanted to return to them because, three years on from Eric’s death, their journalism continues to have an impact. 

This issue looks at historic abuse of boys and young men in detention, so if that’s not for you today then please look after yourself and I’ll see you next week.

A new investigation into the abuse at Medomsley Detention Centre between 1961 and 1987 has labelled one of the staff, Neville Husband, as possibly Britain’s “most prolific” sex offender. However, far from there being just one abuser, the evidence demonstrates that most, if not all, staff were aware that some level of violence was part of the regime.

Many abuse allegations were made at the time by the young men at Medomsley or their families at the time, but they were overlooked by all relevant authorities. The investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman found there was a culture of collusion and silence from staff, alongside Husband’s deep-rooted abuse of power. 

The current minister for youth justice, Jake Richards, described the abuse as “a monstrous perversion of justice”. Now, more than 60 years since this began, the government and local police force have issued long-awaited public apologies to the victims and survivors. 

Eric’s reporting on this issue was personal. He was first sent to prison when he was just 14, and himself suffered physical abuse at the hands of staff. Eric worked closely with Simon, who told me how deeply traumatised survivors of abuse at Medomsley were. Simon felt that Eric was patient and brilliant at speaking with them over many years, which is mentally the hardest and least visible part of the job. “I think it’s one of the most painful pieces we’ve ever done,” Simon said. “Eric went to the grave thinking justice hadn’t been done.”

Husband had been allowed to abuse boys and young men at Medomsley and, it appears, in his other roles in prisons and later in churches. In 1969, the same year he moved to Medomsley, he was arrested and charged in relation to child pornography. The charges were dropped and his employment in the prison service resumed, as did his abuse. Eric and Simon reported that details of that arrest were written on top of his employment record for the next 16 years at Medomsley and throughout his prison service career.

Decades on, in 2003 and again in 2005, Husband was convicted of sexually abusing a handful of young men between 1974 and 1984. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. But these incidents were just the tip of the iceberg.

In 2012, Eric and Simon began their reporting on Medomsley. Through harrowing interviews with survivors, they highlighted the belief that hundreds of boys may have been abused by Neville Husband. In the years that followed, this was confirmed. At first hundreds, then eventually more than 2,000 victims and survivors of physical and sexual abuse at Medomsley came forward to police.

The Durham police investigation, ‘Operation Seabrook’, was launched in 2013. It led to the conviction of five other former Medomsley staff members for charges including assaults, wounding and misconduct in public office. Husband didn’t live to see this investigation or face accountability. He was released from prison in 2009 after serving just over half of his sentence, and died of natural causes the following year.

A recent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman detailed how the police, prison service and Home Office had knowledge of abuse at Medomsley for years that was ignored and dismissed.

Eric and Simon’s work always centred the voices of survivors. With that in mind, it’s important to say that some survivors are not satisfied with this latest investigation. There’s long been demands for a public inquiry into abuse at Medomsley and similar institutions. One of the most prominent survivors campaigning for justice, Kevin Young, had been calling for an inquiry since 2005. He sadly died in 2021.

I usually write about what journalists accomplish with their work, but it’s also important to pay tribute to those survivors. Their tireless pursuit of justice has had the most meaningful impact of all. While the abuse at Medomsley may be historic, the need for further change continues. The recent government apology also came with a commitment to review how children are protected in custody today, which intends to ensure children’s voices are heard and such horrors are never allowed to happen again. 

“I remember that it was only really local journalists [covering in 2005] when Husband was first convicted. A guy called Gavin Engelbrecht at the Northern Echo did good work on it. Then Eric took it up in [2012] and did a big piece on Kevin [Young] and his plight. That was something that put the thing on the map nationally.”

~ Lucy here! In his latest piece on Medomsley, Simon Hattenstone reflects on how Gavin and Eric later worked together to support another prominent Medomsley campaigner, John McCabe. They did some detective work, trawling through old newspaper cuttings to uncover the identity of someone who abused John alongside Neville Husband. From this John recognised the man, who was arrested but never charged. ~

“It’s one of these things [where readers think] ‘oh yeah, it's interesting’, but it doesn't capture the public imagination. Maybe because these people [the survivors of abuse in prisons] are viewed as being worthless individuals by so much of the general public. So that’s how I see it, that the journalists have helped, but they’ve never really got enough traction. By traction, I mean getting government ministers to commit to really doing something about it.

Kevin Young in 2005 called for a public inquiry in the Northern Echo piece. It was right to ask for it. Since then we’ve realised that it wasn’t just Medomsley, it was all detention centers around the country and all borstals [a historic type of youth detention centre] where this type of awful behaviour was happening. And I’m not separating the sexual from the physical, because one leads to another in my experience. There’s been a constant request for that inquiry since that time. It’s been ignored for 20 years plus.

We’re on a road aren’t we? We’re not there yet.”

Journalists often say we need to “stay on the story”, recognising that change will not come from one article but from following that story for months, years, or even decades. This week’s newsletter is a reminder of how vital it is to reflect on the moments where change-focused work, including journalism, is successful in big and small ways, in order to remain hopeful about the long road ahead.

That change-focused work is something we really care about here at TBIJ. My colleagues often write stories that take months or years to investigate. And when you are dealing with a subject that is complex and sensitive, time must be taken to do it justice. If you believe in our work, and want to help us gather the resources needed to do it, then please join our membership community and become a Bureau Insider today:

PS Thank you to David, a Sparkie who let me know that last week’s quote was actually a mangled bit of Bertrand Russell, not George Bernard Shaw. As we say in the biz, great spot!

Have a lovely week,