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BNP brutalityat top security hospital

01 May 1992

A government inquiry, chaired by Louis Blom Cooper, QC, set up to investigate reports of abuse on patients at Ashworth top- security hospital in Merseyside has heard that a campaign of intimidation has been carried out by a group of Prison Officers' Association (POA) nurses who are also supporters of the fascist British National Party (BNP).

Witnesses informed the inquiry that one patient had his head submerged in a kitchen sink; another, who had undergone a frontal lobotomy, found pictures of brains in his locker. A third patient was sent a live snake in a parcel and another had his hand held on an electric hotplate by a nurse. An interim report by the inquiry reported that women patients had been stripped naked and locked in solitary confinement.

The witnesses also told of death threats to members of staff who belonged to a different trade union. Dr David Dines, who spent a week at Ashworth on behalf of the Inquiry said that a group of 8-14 POA members were the ringleaders of the campaign of intimidation.

Guardian 10.3.92; Independent 26.3.92