Posted by Britain’s most prolific sex offender was able to rape and torture boys at a borstal where abuse was ‘ignored and dismissed’ by the prison service, police and the Home Office.
Neville Husband led a reign of terror where he and other staff systematically raped and abused hundreds of young men and boys who they were supposed to be helping.
A damning report released today lays bare the horrors which took place at Medomsley Detention between 1961 and 1987 – where Husband worked as a caterer – in County Durham .The report today brands Husband – who died in 2010 – ‘possibly the most prolific sex offender in British criminal history’.
The scale of offending would surpass even the likes of Jimmy Savile, with the prison ombudsman’s investigation revealing that the ‘voracious’ sexual predator would often target two or three young men every day during his 16 years at Medomsley.
More than 2,000 young men and boys say they were sexually and physically abused at the former Victorian orphanage over nearly three decades.
And the appalling crimes were covered up to such an extent that Husband was even given the Imperial Service Medal for his role in prison services and was welcomed into a church as a minister.
Victims also claimed they were taken to a ‘posh house’ to be abused by Husband and several other men. One claimant said the magistrate who sent him to Medomsley was present at the house. It is alleged a local serving prison officer was also involved in the abuse.
The scathing report from the Prisons Ombudsman, Operation Deerness, unearthed the ‘widespread physical and sexual abuse’ at the facility, which was fuelled by ‘a familiarity with violence’ towards young offenders.
From the moment detainees arrived at the centre, they were physically abused and introduced to the ‘short, sharp, shock’ punishment that became embedded as practice at the facility.
- The Government Legal Department received 2,852 claims alleging sexual and/or physical abuse at Medomsley Detention Centre as of August 2025
- Of the 549 sexual abuse allegations at the facility, 388 were made against Neville Husband, with all but 50 naming him as the primary abuser
- Staff were aware of Husband’s abuse and would jokingly refer to his victims as his ‘wives’
- In one search of his kitchens, sex toys and pornography were found. He ‘manipulated’ the warden so they would never be searched again
- Husband had a ‘great deal of power’ despite being a ‘low-grade member of staff’. He would also carry out attacks alongside colleague Leslie Johnston
- Evidence suggests a local serving police officer was involved in the abuse, with one testimony claiming a magistrate also participated
- Inmates, who were aged between 17 and 21, were subjected to regular violence, with staff encouraging violence and betting on them ‘like dogs’
The former Victorian orphanage served as a youth detention centre (pictured). Championed by Margaret Thatcher’s government borstals were known for their brutal military regimes
Husband was initially arrested in 1999 as part of a Met Police investigation, Operation Voice, where more than 30 ‘hard-core pornographic videos’ were recovered from his home. But the case was later dismissed due to delays in getting a specialist witness.
Between 2001 and 2023, Durham Constabulary conducted three investigations: Operation Halter 1, Operation Halter 2, and Operation Seabrook.
Operation Halter 1 and 2 brought 27 charges against the sex offender, with a total of 24 victims. He was sentenced to ten years behind bars, and died a year after his release from HMP Full Sutton in 2009.
The former Victorian orphanage served as a senior youth detention centre for offenders aged between 17 and 21, who served anywhere between three to six months behind bars for crimes such as shoplifting, non-payment of fines, and to robbery.
In 1952, detention centres were introduced as a solution to youth offending, with the brutal military style regimes further championed by Margaret Thatcher‘s government. They were abolished as part of the Criminal Justice Act in 1988.
Known for its ‘strict and tough nature’, young men were even forewarned to refer to everybody as ‘Sir’, and after arriving would be subjected to physical abuse while they bathed, cleaned, worked, and during medical examinations.
As of August 2025, the Government Legal Department received 2,831 claims alleging sexual and/or physical abuse at the borstal.
Now, thousands of victims affected by the violence and ‘predatory sexual attacks’ carried out at the centre have called for an apology.
Eric Sampson, who endured both hellish sexual and physical abuse at Medomsley, said he ‘could have been killed in there’.
‘The two police officers who took us there said you are going to have the hell kicked out of you,’ he told Sky News. ‘The violence that was done to me was terrible. I was only small. I could have been killed in there.
Neville Husband pictured in 2003. He was previously convicted of sexual crimes against inmates in 2005
‘The amount of times I was knocked about. Every day was hell on earth. Every day and night was hell on earth for the nine and a half weeks.
‘The abuse and the sexual abuse we had done to us, it totally ruined my life. Totally ruined my life. I have never been married.
‘What can you do? All that should have never happened in the first place. All of that should have been stopped.’
In 1961, the borstal first opened its doors, and four years later Husband joined the team. Just two months into his employment, he began offending at the facility and continued until he left in August 1985.
Of the 549 sexual abuse allegations at the facility, 388 were made against the catering officer, with all but 50 naming him as the primary abuser.
‘The power that Husband wielded over trainees was even more one-sided. The ability to provide or withdraw food gave him opportunities to punish and reward,’ Mr Usher added.
‘The isolation he could engineer for trainees existed not only in the total exclusionary dominance he practised within the kitchens themselves, but was also assisted by the geography of Medomsley itself.
‘When Husband told them that if they spoke out, he could make them “disappear,” it would have been easy for them to believe it.’
Christopher Onslow (pictured in 2019) was one of five former Medomsley prison officers jailed for abusing former detainees
John McGee (left in 2019) and Brian Greenwell (right in 2019) were also jailed for their crimes in the detention centre
He is also said to have used his position of power to grope young men as he instructed them to put their hands out in front of them to make sure they were clean, and also watched the detainees while they showered.
One of Husband’s victims, only known as Witness D, told of how he was raped by the kitchen boss in a storeroom, and that he would often be groped by the sex offender, who would physically and sexually assault him.
Another account from a separate inmate told how Husband sexually attacked him after he refused to take off his clothes, adding that he ‘wasn’t a puff’ – asserting he was not a homosexual.
‘[Husband] smacked me hard around the head again and told me to strip off and he laughed at me,’ Witness D said. ‘He put a cord around my throat and neck and began to strangle me with it.’
He claimed Husband then sexually assaulted him while threatening him with a knife. ‘I felt that I was dying as the pain was horrendous.’ Witness D said.
Others recalled how Husband would use inmates to inflict abuse on other young men in the detention centre, with one witness claiming he ordered young detainees to pin down a new arrival and sexually assault him with a broom handle.
‘It was like an initiation thing. I was sitting on the top bunk and watched as three other boys pinned this lad down…,’ a witness said of the incident. ‘Husband was telling the lads what to do.
‘Husband had threatened me, saying he would come for me later, and I was petrified. I wet myself as I was so scared, I was vomiting and was in a real mess. At the cells I didn’t dare sleep as I was certain he would come and kill me…’
Alan Bramley (pictured in 2019) was also jailed along four others for abuse at Medomsley
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