Court hears of ‘routine imprisonment’ of disabled at two Devon care homes

An abusive culture developed at two care homes where staff routinely imprisoned disabled adults in empty rooms to punish or control them, a court heard.

Vulnerable residents were left alone for hours on end with little food or water by “arrogant” managers at the care homes in Devon.

They are accused of being responsible for the “organised and systemic abuse” of disabled residents at the Veilstone, in Bideford, and Gatooma, in Holsworthy, care homes in 2010 and 2011.

The managing director of Atlas Project Team Ltd and four of his staff are accused of a string of offences against seven residents – four men and three women – known by their initials of AF, AC, BP, LO, JM, HI and WB.

Paul Hewitt, 70, (pictured) and employees Lee Farrant, 30, James Lawson, 41, Julie Barlow, 51, and Aaron Jones, 33, all of Devon, deny the charges they face.

Prosecutor Andrew Langdon QC described to the jury at Bristol Crown Court what they would have seen had they looked through a window into the homes.

“There is quite a high chance you would have seen one of the residents alone in an empty room – a room with no features, no clock, no heating, no TV or radio, no bathroom facilities,” he said.

“In one house the room had an armchair and in the other house no furniture at all.

“Both rooms were smartly decorated but essentially empty, save for one resident inside with apparently nothing to do.

“If you watched long enough – and you may have waited several hours or overnight sometimes – you may have seen eventually someone lead them out by either unlocking a door or opening it, giving permission for them to leave, letting them re-join the residents of the house.

“During that period of time you would have been unlikely to have seen anyone bring them food or drink or anything much of comfort.

“Either way it would have been a disturbing experience of people being left alone.

“The prosecution say that each of them was effectively imprisoned in that room against their will and having seen that by peering through the window at either of those two homes you would have caught a glimpse of a much wider practice.

“It was not a one-off but organised and systematic abuse of people with learning disabilities – vulnerable members of society who were residents in homes that were meant to care for them.

“Both these homes had rooms that were used to isolate and seclude certain residents.”

The court heard these rooms were known as either the “garden room” or the “quiet room”.

Mr Langdon said: “Whatever the original purpose these two rooms were used by staff to control – perhaps to even punish residents – at a time that was not only unacceptable by professional standards of care but was also quite unnecessarily cruel.”

Hewitt was described as a “respected figure” who was a qualified psychiatric nurse and behavioural therapist.

At the time he ran a total of seven care homes in Devon and Berkshire. They have since closed and Atlas has gone into administration.

Hewitt’s co-directors were Jolyon Marshall and Timothy Stevens, who have both admitted to offences linked to this trial. Marshall’s wife, Rachel, who was the second in command at Veilstone, has also pleaded guilty.

Hewitt’s four co-defendants were employed as care workers “under the guidance and direction of senior staff”. Farrant worked at Veilstone; Barlow and Jones at Gatooma and Lawson worked at both.

“They were trained in a philosophy and methods, some of which are uncontroversial, and others are at best outdated, even then in 2010 and 2011,” Mr Langdon said.

“The prosecution say it was an insular world and it led to a culture of care that was in effect abusive.

“The senior staff at Atlas believed that others could teach them little and those that didn’t agree simply didn’t understand.

“The prosecution say that was a dangerous and arrogant position and it came from those at the very top of the organisation.

“The residents were not inmates, they were residents and whatever the challenges their behaviour created, each of them at all times should have been treated with respect.

“You may end up forming the view that Atlas was ill-equipped to care for them so shouldn’t have taken them on.”

The court heard there was no “positive behaviour strategy” and Atlas “prided itself” on being able to look after those whose behaviour was too difficult for other homes to cope with.

“There is no doubt that as a company it had an impressive reputation,” Mr Langdon said.

The company was paid as much as £4,000 a week per resident.

Hewitt denies charges of conspiracy to detain and imprison falsely and failure to discharge a duty. Lawson denies eight charges of false imprisonment, Farrant six charges of false imprisonment and Jones and Barlow three charges each of false imprisonment.

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