Whorlton Hall: Prosecutors say accused staff had to 'fit in'

Whorlton Hall in County Durham has closed since the 2019 Panorama documentary

A secure hospital where staff allegedly ill treated patients had a culture where workers had to "fit in" with cruel behaviour, prosecutors said.

Nine former staff at Whorlton Hall, near Barnard Castle, County Durham, deny 27 offences arising from an undercover BBC Panorama film in 2019.

In her closing speech, Prosecutor Anne Richardson told Teesside Crown Court various defendants mocked patients.

Ms Richardson said staff should not need training to treat people nicely.

'Not easy job'

Jurors have been shown numerous clips filmed by Olivia Davies, an undercover reporter who posed as a carer at the 17-bedroom hospital between December 2018 and February 2019.

The charges relate to seven patients, all of whom had extremely complex learning and behavioural difficulties and could be "volatile and often physically aggressive".

Ms Richardson said the patients were "not there by choice" and "couldn't go home", but they also "had not done anything wrong" to be in Whorlton Hall.

She said there was "not a scintilla of doubt staff in Whorlton Hall were working under pressure" and being a carer "was not an easy job" or well-paid.

Ms Richardson said jurors did not have to decide if the home was well-managed or if it was "wholly wrong" the hospital's owners received large amounts of money to look after patients but paid staff "low wages" for working "long hours".

She said jurors "must factor in the surrounding circumstances" and the "environment in which the defendants were working" as well as the training they received.

The court has heard carers were trained in restraint techniques but not in how to deal with people with complex needs.

"But at the end of the day," Ms Richardson said, "you don't need training to treat someone nicely."

'Contempt'

Ms Richardson said: "There was a culture within Whorlton Hall. You fitted in or you were asked out."

She said in the recordings of staff there was "extensive use of very explicit swear words".

Ms Richardson said prosecutors did not "seek to criminalise letting off steam" and it was "not an offence to swear" but what jurors were seeing was the "true behaviour of those defendants and their contempt for those within their charge".

The court heard one of the alleged victims was a woman with autism who regularly screamed in a piercing way.

Ms Richardson said she "did not doubt it could become "intolerable" but the way staff reacted to her, like laughing or "saying she was possessed", was "not banter" but "simply cruel".

'At mercy'

Ms Richardson said defendants got a "cheap laugh" at the patients' expense, mimicked and mocked them, and that jurors watching some of the clips may have thought they were seeing into a "kindergarten", albeit a "very profane one".

She said several of the defendants claimed it was "banter" but "banter presupposes a conversation between equals".

The prosecutor said: "The sad fact is these patients were completely at the mercy of those caring for them."

She said Whorlton Hall was the patients' home and they couldn't walk out if some staff "chose to bully them for their own amusement".

Ms Richardson said the clips only provided a "snapshot" and there were "no doubt many times when perfectly pleasant interactions occurred" between patients and staff.

She also said several of the male defendants portrayed Ms Davies as "something of a siren" who was "effectively luring them" into saying things to "impress her".

In a closing speech on behalf of Peter Bennett, who faces three charges, Andrew Rutter said his client only ever acted in the patients' "best interests".

Mr Bennett was accused of ill-treating a woman who had a preference of female carers by "threatening" her with male staff when she was having a screaming episode on 6 January.

The court heard Mr Bennett said more men would come to her room if the woman did not calm down.

Mr Rutter said the "ends justify the means" and Mr Bennett's actions worked at calming the woman without the need for drugs or restraint, adding: "It ends with the two of them speaking amicably."

He said: "Anyone who acts in the best interest of someone for whom they care cannot be cruel, abusive and ill-treat."

The nine accused face the following number of charges of ill treatment of a person in care:

• John Sanderson, 25, of Cambridge Avenue, Willington - two

• Darren Lawton, 47, of Miners Crescent, Darlington - two

• Niall Mellor, 26, of Lingmell Dene, Coundon, Bishop Auckland - two

• Sara Banner, 33, of Faulkner Road, Newton Aycliffe - three

• Matthew Banner, 43, of the same address - six

• Ryan Fuller, 27, of Deerbolt Bank, Barnard Castle - 10

• Sabah Mahmood, 27, of Woodland Crescent, Kelloe - one

• Peter Bennett, 53, of Redworth Road, Billingham - three

• Karen McGhee, 54, of Wildair Close, Darlington - two

The trial continues.