Aston Hall - Victoria Derbyshire bbc2 - abuse

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-38827361

Girls in local authority care may have faced experimental drug treatment after being channelled via a remand home, BBC Inside Out can reveal.

Breadsall Remand Home in Derby took girls from the Midlands and Yorkshire and sent many to Aston Hall Hospital.
The hospital has been accused of using a discredited "truth serum" therapy on patients as young as 11.
An ex-patient said the revelation made her "disgusted to the pit of my stomach".


Dr Kenneth Milner, Aston Hall's medical head, is accused of carrying out traumatic "therapies" on children
Aston Hall in Derbyshire was opened in the 1920s for those deemed to have mental health problems. It could cater for about 100 children of both sexes, but took adults as well.

It closed in the 1990s but comments on a website about derelict buildings brought its grim history to light.
Former patients began to swap experiences, describing Aston Hall as "pure hell" and "a horrendous place".
This put the focus on Dr Kenneth Milner, who took over the centre in 1947.

Sodium amytal, a so-called truth serum, was originally used on traumatised soldiers
A treatment run by Dr Milner saw patients, including a number of children, being isolated, stripped and drugged, according to claims.
Records show he was using sodium amytal and may have been employing "narcoanalysis" - a military method for treating servicemen with repressed traumatic experiences, which was largely abandoned after World War Two.

This evidence, combined with a lack of published research and few medical records, have led to Dr Milner's methods being called into question.
Many former patients have spoken of the trauma of the process, with some claiming to have had false memories of abuse suggested to them and even been sexually abused by Dr Milner.

But new research has shown there was a system for bringing children, particularly girls, to Aston Hall.
Inspection reports revealed doubts about Dr Milner's treatments in the 1960s
The National Archives show a single remand home may have made hundreds of girls available to Dr Milner, despite the doubts of regulators.

These documents show Dr Milner was available to provide psychiatric reports for those admitted to the Breadsall Remand Home for Girls as far back as 1964.
The home, which held about 20 children at any one time, mostly served the Derby and Nottingham areas, but took girls from at least 11 other local authorities, including Sheffield, Leicester, Coventry and Stoke.

The same year, the home's committee asked the regional board to consider the appointment of a children's psychiatrist, rather than Dr Milner and Aston Hall, as "more appropriate" to its work.