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Criminal or Autistic Teenager?
'She's not an animal': Autistic teen girl locked up 24 hours a day
Jeremy said his daughter Bethany is being held in a "cell" where food is served to her by sliding it across the floor.
The distraught father of an autistic teenager who is locked up for 24 hours a day without any physical human contact has told Sky News his daughter "is not an animal".
Jeremy, whose full name cannot be disclosed to protect his daughter Bethany's identity, said she is being held in a "cell" where food is served to her by sliding it across the floor.
He said: "I use the word cell because the room has a door you can walk into and is locked. Bethany is locked away in a cell. It is 10ft wide and 14ft to 15ft long.
"There is no furniture except a mattress on the floor that she sleeps on. There is no access to fresh air, not a window she can see out of. It's incredibly bright.
"Beth's sensory needs need somewhere calm. It's noisy, you can hear people on the secure ward. People who are distressed."
She has been locked up for almost three years.
Jeremy said: "We no longer have physical contact with Beth. The hospital says it can no longer support her, they see her as a risk, they see her as a potential risk.
"So many of the restrictions they put in place are not because of what she has done but because of what they feel Beth might do. So they now keep her locked away.
"When it comes to feeding Beth, Beth has to move to the end of the room, sit on the floor behind a line. Only then will they open the door and slide her food in and lock the door again. That's like feeding a vicious dog. My daughter is not an animal."
This is the latest secure unit where Bethany has been held.
There are currently 2,250 people with a learning disability or autism from England in units, 235 of them are under the age of 18.
Some 355 people have been in institutions/hospitals for 10 years or more, according to NHS Digital's most recent data for England in September 2019.
Last October, Sky News revealed that 40 people with a learning disability or autism have died while admitted to secure treatment units since 2015 - and told the story of a man who has spent 19 years in one unit.
Jeremy says he has not been able to hold his daughter "for weeks".
"If I'd known it was going to be the last time I wouldn't have let her go. Now to sit and talk to her through a thick Perspex window, we can't even have a proper conversation. She begs to have her hand held."
https://news.sky.com/story/autistic-teen-girl-locked-up-24-hours-a-day-shes-not-an-animal-says-father-11849347
Jeremy said his daughter Bethany is being held in a "cell" where food is served to her by sliding it across the floor.
The distraught father of an autistic teenager who is locked up for 24 hours a day without any physical human contact has told Sky News his daughter "is not an animal".
Jeremy, whose full name cannot be disclosed to protect his daughter Bethany's identity, said she is being held in a "cell" where food is served to her by sliding it across the floor.
He said: "I use the word cell because the room has a door you can walk into and is locked. Bethany is locked away in a cell. It is 10ft wide and 14ft to 15ft long.
"There is no furniture except a mattress on the floor that she sleeps on. There is no access to fresh air, not a window she can see out of. It's incredibly bright.
"Beth's sensory needs need somewhere calm. It's noisy, you can hear people on the secure ward. People who are distressed."
She has been locked up for almost three years.
Jeremy said: "We no longer have physical contact with Beth. The hospital says it can no longer support her, they see her as a risk, they see her as a potential risk.
"So many of the restrictions they put in place are not because of what she has done but because of what they feel Beth might do. So they now keep her locked away.
"When it comes to feeding Beth, Beth has to move to the end of the room, sit on the floor behind a line. Only then will they open the door and slide her food in and lock the door again. That's like feeding a vicious dog. My daughter is not an animal."
This is the latest secure unit where Bethany has been held.
There are currently 2,250 people with a learning disability or autism from England in units, 235 of them are under the age of 18.
Some 355 people have been in institutions/hospitals for 10 years or more, according to NHS Digital's most recent data for England in September 2019.
Last October, Sky News revealed that 40 people with a learning disability or autism have died while admitted to secure treatment units since 2015 - and told the story of a man who has spent 19 years in one unit.
Jeremy says he has not been able to hold his daughter "for weeks".
"If I'd known it was going to be the last time I wouldn't have let her go. Now to sit and talk to her through a thick Perspex window, we can't even have a proper conversation. She begs to have her hand held."
https://news.sky.com/story/autistic-teen-girl-locked-up-24-hours-a-day-shes-not-an-animal-says-father-11849347
Comments
Five more years of Conservative austerity, anyone?