Mental health patient tells how she was raped up to 60 times

A mental health patient has told how she was raped up to 60 times by a care worker (stock picture)

A mental health patient has described how she was raped up to 60 times by a care worker.

The woman, who was groomed with gifts from the senior staff member, has branded psychiatric hospitals a ‘playground for predators’.

She only built up the courage to speak out about the abuse after she was released from Little Brook Hospital in Dartford, Kent - and her abuser avoided a jail sentence.

The woman, who has not been named, has now called for better safeguards for mental health patients, who she describes as ‘the most vulnerable in society in terms of being abused’.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Victoria Derbyshire show, which is to be broadcast today, she described how the staff member would enter her room for sex on a nightly basis.

She said he would give her gifts such as Valium, cigarettes and chocolate, according to the Mirror.

The woman is now in her 40s and estimates she was raped 60 times. She was paid £100,000 compensation in 2003 and 2004.

She said that the abuse built up until it was taking place up to six nights a week and described how she was told he would report her for good behaviour.

 

‘It was total manipulation. He was saying, “this is your way out”. At the time you believe anything,’ she said.

‘You latch on to that hope because you don’t have much hope in anything else. He would come in to my room every night and rape me. 

'But who is going to believe a mental patient over a highly respected member of staff?’

The victim only built up the courage to speak out after she was released from Little Brook Hospital in Dartford

Meanwhile, she was told by doctors that if she attempted to leave the hospital she would be sectioned.

The woman even got a sexually transmitted disease, but staff only became aware of the abuse when she was released from the home and gained the courage to report it.

The care worker pleaded guilty to one act of unlawful sexual intercourse with a patient after being charged by police.

He was given a 12-month sentence, suspended by two years, and told by Kent and Medway NHS Trust he should never work with vulnerable people again.

The new trust said it was unable to comment because the offences occurred under the previous regime.