Ex-inmates feel 'forgotten' over abuse claims

Mark Knight said he was "punched and kicked" after being sent to the centre for stealing a bike

Former inmates who said they were abused as teenagers at a detention centre have claimed they have been "forgotten and frozen out".

More than 800 men have contacted Cleveland Police claiming they were physically or sexually abused at the former Kirklevington detention centre, near Yarm, from the 1960s to the 1990s.

A police investigation was launched in 2014 but ex-inmates said they were disappointed nobody had been brought to justice.

The force said it understood "the trauma and upset" inmates had endured and that it had submitted files about the centre to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for its consideration.

Mark Knight was 15 years old when he was sent to the centre for stealing a bike.

He said he was physically abused on an almost daily basis.

''They'd punch you and boot you in the face," he said.

"You couldn't say anything, because if you reported it, you got more beatings."

The centre for teenagers was supposed to deter them from a life of crime

Cleveland Police said it was working "tirelessly" to bring offenders to justice.

In a statement it said 21 suspects had been interviewed.

It also said it had submitted two previous case files to the CPS, but the suspects had died before charging decisions had been made.

"A further four files have been submitted to the CPS and a further four are currently being progressed by our officers," the force said.

Children aged 14 and 15 were sent to Kirklevington for a "short, sharp, shock" to try and deter them from a life of crime.

Teesside law firm Watson Woodhouse is representing about 150 ex-detainees.

Solicitor Alistair Smith said: "The victims deserve better - it's degrading, insulting and inhuman.

"I'm sure they'd have never reported the abuse if they'd known the investigation was going to go on this long."