Man's message to 'sadistic' detention guard abuser

Craig Noman said he would "never forget" what he went through at Eastwood Park

A man who said he was abused by a "sadistic" prison officer is "gutted" he missed the chance to face his attacker in court.

Craig Noman, now 62, spent six weeks at HMP Eastwood Park where he said he was under the watch of Patrick Devaney, who was jailed last year for subjecting teenage boys to physical, racial and verbal abuse at the juvenile detention centre between 1970 and 1983.

Mr Noman, who was not aware of the court case until last month, told the BBC he was "devastated" to have missed his opportunity to "look Devaney in the eye and ask 'why?'".

After committing his first offence aged just 15, Mr Noman was sent to Eastwood Park, then a young offenders institute, in 1978 – an experience he described as "brutal" and the catalyst for years of criminal offending.

Devaney, 81, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison at Bristol Crown Court after being found guilty of misconduct in public office.

Mr Noman, from Cardiff, who now works as a support worker for a charity supporting vulnerable homeless young people across South Wales, described how he had been repeatedly abused by Devaney throughout his time at Eastwood Park.

He said his first interaction with the prison officer was on his very first night at the institution.

"He told me to run to the end of a corridor with my bed pack, read a sign on the door, and sprint back to him. He was screaming at me 'run, run'," he said.

"I got to the door, ran back, and he asked me 'what was the sign?'.

"I said 'no running' - I had a slap across the head, a punch in the stomach, and he told me not to run."

Devaney was convicted at Bristol Crown Court in February last year

This arbitrary, violent punishment was typical of what Mr Noman said he and other young people at the institution went through under Devaney's watch.

At his trial, 22 former detainees gave evidence about the "evil" physical abuse he subjected them to.

An athletic teenager, Mr Noman described how he was singled out by Devaney and made captain of the football team.

"There were other boys there who weren’t very good at football and I witnessed him abusing them physically, emotionally, verbally," Mr Noman said.

'I'll never forget it'

He described a number of incidents in which he was physically abused by Devaney, including one situation where he said the prison officer asked him to catch rabbits in the prison grounds.

"I’ll never forget it, you’re on your hands and knees, there were wild rabbits running everywhere," he said.

"I caught one on my hands and knees and stood up to give it to him, but the rabbit got out of my hands. He punched me in the stomach a few times, called me a stupid boy and gave me a clip across the head just for dropping a rabbit."

More than 20 men gave evidence at Patrick Devaney's trial

'A very sadistic man'

There were other instances in which Mr Noman said he was hit six times with a cricket bat by Devaney for dropping lime from a wheelbarrow, and another where he said he was punched in the back of the head and left "seeing stars" for nodding at another detainee he recognised in the dinner queue.

"I knew that if I made a mistake I’d have a punch or a slap or the cricket bat," he said.

"He was a very sadistic man, he’d get a kick out of inflicting pain or violence on you."

Having never been in a young offenders institute before, Mr Noman - who was detained in 1978 for wounding with intent - said he came to believe that such abuse was "normal".

"I thought, ‘this is how grown-ups behave, when you’re away from home for being a naughty boy'," he said.

At the time, government policy included punishing young offenders with a "short, sharp shock" and detention centres would implement a harsh "military-style" regime.

But the court during Devaney's trial heard his behaviour went far beyond what was "appropriate or acceptable".

Mr Noman described conditions at the institution as "brutal"

Involved with a gang in Cardiff from a young age, Mr Noman was in and out of prison more than a dozen times throughout the 80s and 90s - receiving his last conviction in 2000.

While he had already been caught up in criminal activity, he said his experience with Devaney at Eastwood Park meant he "came out more violent than when I went in".

“I thought if I can handle six weeks in there with them, especially him, I can do anything. I can go to prison and that’ll be easy," he said.

"I saw life differently when I came out, I didn’t care."

'Inhuman'

Mr Noman said that even now, more than 40 years after his detention at Eastwood Park, Devaney was still the only prison officer's name he could remember - such was his impact on the rest of his life.

He said: "If I saw him now, even though he’s a pensioner, I’d just like to ask him: ‘What did you get out of seeing me in pain, of seeing other boys in pain?’

"It was inhuman to act like that. You don’t pick on young boys, physically abuse them and make their lives hell, but you did.”

After his conviction, Det Insp Alan Smith, from Avon and Somerset Constabulary, said Devaney "exploited his position to physically assault those who he was meant to keep safe".

"The force he used however went way beyond what was appropriate and acceptable, with many of his victims describing him as sadistic and someone who enjoyed inflicting pain on them," he added.