A man with learning disabilities told police he felt like an animal when he was “imprisoned” in a “disgusting and cold” isolation room at a care home, a jury has heard.
The man, who cannot be identified, is one of a number of residents who were allegedly the victims of organised and systematic abuse at two care homes in north Devon.
Vulnerable men and women were sent to the rooms at the Veilstone and Gatooma care homes as part of a regime to control and punish them, it is claimed.
Identified only as AC, the man said: “The quiet room was used a lot with me. Anything I had done, they used to put me in there. If I did something that they didn’t like I was straight back in.
“It’s not on to do that. A normal person would not put a person in a room like that because they have problems. It was a room that was disgusting and cold. At night the door was locked. It had a CCTV camera, a smoke detector and a punctured mattress – it was an airbed but it had a puncture in. It was one of the things that was too unspeakable – I couldn’t stay in there.
“It had lino on the floor. It was cold, damp. If you wanted to go to the toilet, there was no toilet in there. There was a window but it was locked. No curtains. They made the room as bad as possible and as uncomfortable as possible.
“There was no handle on the inside and there was a handle on the outside. If you wanted to go to the toilet you had to knock on the door. I was kept in there overnight. I wasn’t able to get out. I tried to get out but they grabbed me and got me back in.”
AC, who has a low IQ and epilepsy, described the room in an interview with the police that was played to the jury at Bristol crown court. Asked how being kept in the quiet room made him feel, AC replied: “It made me feel terrible in a way … an animal basically.”
An investigation was launched when AC reported managers to the watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, in July 2011. The homes were later shut down.
Paul Hewitt, 70, founder of Atlas Project Team, which ran the homes, is accused of conspiracy to detain and failure to discharge a duty. Aaron Jones, 33, Lee Farrant, 30, James Lawson, 41, and Julie Barlow, 51, are accused of false imprisonment of residents. They deny all charges.
The trial continues.
