For more information, please contact:
Parliamentary lead: Quinn Roache, 0161 829 8647
Quinn.Roache@equalityhumanrights.com
Policy lead : Tim Gunning, 020 7832 7818
Tim.Gunning@equalityhumanrights.com
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Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................ 2
Case Study 1 – Steven Hoskin .............................................................. 2
Case Study 2 – Michael Gilbert .............................................................. 3
The Commission’s analysis .................................................................... 3
About the Equality and Human Rights Commission .............................. 4
The Case studies below should be read in conjunction with the
Commission’s briefing in support of amendment to introduce adult safeguarding access power
The briefing can be downloaded from our website at: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/cgibin/generate.pl?page_id=_dwah6fudg&mode=only&save=screen&test_l evel=2&redirect =
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Introduction
The Commissions’ Disability Harassment Inquiry 1 found that abuse and neglect of disabled people sometimes takes place in their own homes and is sometimes carried out by people living with or visiting the victim.
Our inquiry examined ten cases of very serious abuse where disabled people died or were seriously injured. Several of these cases involved the victim being abused by people they were living with. These cases suggest that if the local authority had tried to intervene in some of these cases it is likely that the abuse perpetrators would have denied access to the suspected victim in the absence of a legal power of entry.
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In July 2006, Steven Hoskin was found dead at the bottom of a 100-foot railway viaduct in St Austell, Cornwall. He had been tortured for hours before his death, suffering various injuries inflicted upon him by a number of perpetrators. He had been tied up, dragged round by a lead, imprisoned, burnt with cigarettes, humiliated and repeatedly violently abused in his own home over a period of time. He had been forced to make a false confession that he was a paedophile and coerced into taking a lethal dose of paracetamol tablets. Finally he was taken to the viaduct and forced over the railings before one of the perpetrators stamped on his fingers until he let go.
Steven was a 38-year-old man with learning disabilities. His murder was the culmination of ongoing abuse. Five people were involved on the night of his death. The ringleader was Darren Stewart, 29, who had moved into Steven’s flat along with his girlfriend.
Steven’s death followed a series of abusive incidents occurring over a period of months that a number of agencies, including police, health services, housing and social services, had been alerted to at some stage. Opportunities to intervene to halt the abuse were missed.
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1
EHRC (2012) Hidden in plain sight. Inquiry into disability-related harassment. Manchester: Equality and
Human Rights Commission. Page 39
2 EHRC (2012) Hidden in plain sight. Inquiry into disability-related harassment. Manchester: Equality and
Human Rights Commission. Page 82
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On 10 May 2009, Michael Gilbert’s headless, dismembered body was found in the Blue Lagoon at Arlesey, near Luton. He was 26 years old and there is evidence that he had an undiagnosed mental health issue.
Almost a year later, in April 2010, six people were jailed for involvement in his murder – three of murder and three of familial homicide. The ringleader was James Watt, who had met Michael when they were both in care as teenagers.
Michael had lived with the Watt family for much of the seven years prior to his murder. He was kept as a domestic slave and tortured over much of that period. He was beaten on many occasions, punched and stamped on, stabbed with a knife, shot with an air pellet gun and had snooker balls dropped on his testicles. In the weeks before his death a piece of wood was put in his mouth on which James Watt would do pushups and his stomach was repeatedly jumped on.
Michael attempted to escape the Watt family on a number of occasions, trying to find safety both within Luton and further afield in Norfolk,
Cambridge and Lancashire. On each occasion he was tracked down by the Watt family, taken back to their home and beaten. A number of these abductions were reported to the police but none of them resulted in effective action to protect Michael.
Michael first went to live with the Watt family in 2001 after a period sleeping rough. Within months he was experiencing violence at their hands. As early as October 2001, more than seven years before he was murdered, Michael told Luton social services that he wanted protection after a dispute with James Watt and Watt’s mother. This was one of many missed opportunities to help him find safety away from the Watts.
The Commission’s analysis
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s analysis of the Care Bill suggests that the human rights of persons at risk of abuse would be better protected by amending the bill to provide a power of entry for local authority representatives, where a third party is refusing access to a person who is thought to be at risk of abuse and neglect. A power of entry with appropriate safeguards, combined with the proposed duty of
3 EHRC (2012) Hidden in plain sight. Inquiry into disability-related harassment. Manchester: Equality and
Human Rights Commission. Page 43
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local authorities to make enquiries, would enable more effective interventions in response to allegations or suspicions of abuse and neglect. The Commission therefore supports the proposed amendment to introduce new Clause 3: Adult safeguarding access order, in the
House of Commons Notices of Amendments given on Friday 3 January
2014 put forward by Paul Burstow MP to the Care Bill.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a statutory body, established under the Equality Act 2006. Its statutory duties include, among other things, to promote equality of opportunity, work towards the elimination of unlawful discrimination, and promote awareness, understanding and protection human rights.
The Commission enforces equality legislation on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and encourages compliance with the Human Rights Act. It gives advice and guidance to businesses, the voluntary and public sectors, and to individuals.
The Commission has a statutory duty under the Equality Act 2006 4 to encourage and support the development of a society in which: people's ability to achieve their potential is not limited by prejudice or discrimination, there is respect for and protection of each individual's human rights, there is respect for the dignity and worth of each individual, each individual has an equal opportunity to participate in society, and there is mutual respect between groups based on understanding and valuing of diversity and on shared respect for equality and human rights.
The Commission is responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of the equality and human rights enactments and advising on the effectiveness of enactments, as well as the likely effect of a proposed change of law 5 .
As a UN accredited National Human Rights Institution, the Commission is required to ‘promote and ensure the harmonisation of national legislation, regulations and practices with the international human rights
4 Equality Act 2006, section 3.
5 Equality Act 2006, section 11.
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instruments to which the State is a party’.
6 This includes the European
Convention on Human Rights, incorporated in the Human Rights Act
1998.
Find out more about the Commission’s work at: www.equalityhumanrights.com
6 Principles relating to the Status of National Institutions (The Paris Principles), Adopted by General Assembly resolution 48/134 of 20 December 1993.
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