Watchdog investigates possible failures at mental health hospital after 24 alleged rapes

The care watchdog is investigating possible safeguarding failures at an NHS trust after a documentary uncovered figures showing there were 24 alleged rapes and 18 alleged sexual offences in just three years at one of its mental health hospitals.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) told Disability News Service (DNS) that it had suspended the trust’s ratings for wards for people with learning difficulties and autistic people while it carried out checks.

The figures were secured by the team behind Locked Away: Our Autism Scandal, a film for Channel 4’s Dispatches, which revealed the poor and inappropriate treatment and abuse experienced by autistic people in mental health units.

None of the alleged rapes at Littlebrook Hospital in Dartford, Kent, led to a prosecution, with allegations of 12 rapes and 15 further sexual offences dropped because of “evidential difficulties” and investigations into 12 other alleged rapes and two sexual offences failing to identify a suspect.

A CQC spokesperson said: “Sexual offences are a matter for the police in the first instance.

“However, we take reports of sexual offences seriously and review them all, and raise these issues directly with the trust.

“We do this alongside involvement from police and local authority safeguarding teams’ own investigations and monitor any actions and outcomes taken by the trust to ensure people are kept safe."

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Source: 30 March 2023