The Medomsley Detention Centre site is barely visible from the road, and shunned by locals. Its ­red-brick buildings are haunted by its brutal past as an experiment in Margaret Thatcher’s “short, sharp shock”.

For decades, the facility for young, first-time offenders, was the scene of brutal, sadistic detention, where 17 to 21-year-olds were sexually and physically abused – for which members of staff were eventually convicted.

Now, Home Secretary Priti Patel has a new plan for the abandoned buildings near Consett, County Durham.

A “prison-style” detention and “removal centre” for up to 85 women seeking asylum.

The news comes as a blow to Medomsley’s survivors who want to see the buildings torn down. It is also a betrayal of refugee campaigners promised a new approach to women’s detention, at a time when concerns are growing over Home Office failures at Napier and Penally Barracks.

What is your view? Have your say in the comment section

Campaigner Agnes Tanoh is appalled (
Image:
Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)

Medomsley survivor David ‘Alan’ Brown says he was sent there in 1981 aged 17 for a petty crime he didn’t commit. Now a 58-year-old grandad, he waived his anonymity in 2019 to give evidence against his abusers.

This week, we introduced Alan to Agnes Tanoh, a refugee who is campaigning against the centre.

“It is a shock, because in my opinion that place needs to be knocked down,” Alan told Agnes. “There are too many bad memories in that bad place. When I drive past or see or hear the word Medomsley, it makes me feel ill. I want to drive a crane with a big ball on the end and smash it to bits.”

He shares his memories, which include being “kicked to bits” in a padded cell, “hearing bones crunch” during beatings handed out to other boys, and one boy asking him to stamp on his leg to break it, to escape a brutal PT session.

Agnes, who once worked for the Ivorian MP Simone Gbagbo, wife of the former president, narrowly escaped the Ivory Coast with her life in 2011.

A year earlier she was among those locked up with Mr and Mrs Gbagbo when rival politician Alassane ­Ouattara seized power following a contested election. More than 3,000 people were killed in fighting, including many of Agnes’ close friends.

She was freed from prison by the UN, walked to Ghana, and fled to the UK to seek sanctuary. “I came here to save my life,” she tells Alan. “I knew the UK. I’d visited as a diplomat and sent my children to study here.”

But when she asked for help, she ended up in the notorious Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre near Bedford.

Like news? Sign up to one of the Mirror's newsletters

Medomsley Detention Centre, County Durham, in 1985 - all inmates had to have one hour's statutory PE every day (
Image:
Mirrorpix)

“It was so painful to be in prison again. I was taken three times to the airport to be deported. I thought death was waiting for me at the other side. I was so ­frightened, I tried to trust in God.

“I finally have refugee status and am believed, after eight years repeating the same story. Why was I locked up? I still live with the stigma and pain.”

At 17, Alan was beaten every day by Christopher Onslow, a PT instructor. He was punched in the mouth by another officer, John McGee. He knew others were being sexually abused.

“They were watching us in the showers, there was something sick about the whole place,” he says. “Onslow was an animal. The weak lads, you could hear the crunch, he was hitting them so hard. It was a pure nightmare.”

Medomsley Detention Centre (
Image:
Newcastle Chronicle)

Niamh Wilson of Hampson Hughes Solicitors, which represents survivors, adds: “It is shocking that these plans are even being considered.

“We’ve worked with over 30 victims who suffered unimaginable physical and sexual abuse at Medomsley ­Detention Centre – the idea of the site being used again to imprison ­vulnerable people is appalling.

"I know victims we have supported agree the building needs to be torn down, not used for a further chapter of suffering.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Immigration detention plays a crucial role in a robust immigration system and a significant proportion of women detained are facing deportation because of criminal offences.

Campaigners want Medomsley Detention Centre torn down (
Image:
Mirrorpix)

“The immigration removal estate is under ongoing review to ensure the Home Office has sufficient resilience, geographical footprint and capacity for the men and women it is necessary to detain for the purposes of removal, while providing value for money.”

The facility at Medomsley later became Hassockfield Secure Training Centre, which closed in 2015. It took until 2019 for Alan to get justice.

“I told the court, don’t feel sorry for these little old men – in 1981 they were animals,” he says. “Onslow got eight-and-a-half years. I felt as if I had lost eight stone getting that out of us.”

Onslow, then 73, was found guilty of assault and wounding with intent while McGee, then 75, was jailed for two years and eight months for assault and misconduct in a public office.

Agnes is visibly upset. “What I went through, I don’t want to happen to others who just want protection,” she says. “When they harm one lady, they harm a family, ­children. I will campaign until someone hears our cry.”

Alan nods. “Fighting the ­Government is one of the hardest things you can do. They don’t listen to people like you and me. They don’t care about people like us. It took me 37years to get even with these people.

“Never give up. Never. If you give up, they get away with it.”

  • To sign Agnes’ petition, visit change.org and search for “women detention centre”

Additional reporting Maryam Qaiser