Mental health patients ‘raped and sexually assaulted’ in NHS care as ‘national scandal’ revealed
Mental health patients have alleged they were raped and sexually assaulted while being treated by the NHS, in what has been described as a “national scandal”.
An investigation by Sky News and The Independent has uncovered nearly 20,000 complaints of sexual assault, abuse and harassment, involving both patients and staff, across more than 30 mental health trusts in England since 2019.
The investigation was sparked by the testimony of Alexis Quinn – a former British youth swimmer whose story is told in the new Sky News podcast Patient 11 – after she escaped from psychiatric care following complaints of sexual assault by male patients.
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In both instances, Alexis’s alleged attackers faced no criminal action.
Multiple patients and their families have come forward to tell their stories.
They include a law graduate who described how she was sexually assaulted by a male staff member before being moved on to a mixed-gender psychiatric unit.
Meanwhile, a mother-of-two said she was subjected to five months of “horrific” sexual abuse at the hands of a male staff member.
“I thought it was just me,” Alexis told Sky News.
“But it’s not just me – there are thousands of people [like me].”
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‘I’m just being traumatised’
In 2011, the Department of Health committed to eradicating mixed-sex care across all its inpatient services.
Despite this, more than 12 years on, Sky News and The Independent has identified hundreds of allegations of rape and sexual assault in mixed-sex wards and shared spaces in NHS England psychiatric care.
Following more than 50 freedom of information requests to NHS England mental health trusts, with 38 responses, we can reveal:
• Nearly 20,000 “sexual safety incidents” were reported on inpatient mental health wards between 2019 and 2023 – with the annual figure rising each year
A sexual safety incident is defined as any unwanted sexual behaviour that makes a person feel uncomfortable or unsafe. This includes rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, comments of a sexual nature or observing sexual behaviour, including exposure to nakedness.
• Nearly 4,000 sexual safety incidents were reported between January and August 2023 – higher than the annual total for both 2019 and 2020
• That trusts are largely failing to apply 2020 government-backed sexual safeguarding protections, with only six authorities demonstrating that they are doing so
A separate FOI request conducted by The Independent revealed:
• More than 800 allegations of sexual assault and rape involving female patients across more than 20 trusts between 2019 and 2023 – only 95 of which were reported to the police
• More than 500 allegations of sexual assault and rape in mixed male and female NHS England psychiatric inpatient settings, across more than 20 trusts
The findings have been described as a “national scandal” by former Victim’s Commissioner Dame Vera Baird.
Meanwhile, Dr Lade Smith, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “The horrendous findings show that there is still much to do to make sure that patients and staff in mental health trusts are protected from sexual harms at all times.
“It is deeply troubling to see that so few incidents in mental health settings go unreported.”
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said it was “chilling” that these “horrific” alleged crimes were reported to have taken place in the NHS.
“Very serious questions must urgently be asked of hospital leaders, who have to explain why the vast majority of these incidents were kept from the police,” he added.
“NHS England must explain why so few trusts have implemented sexual safeguarding protections designed to keep patients safe.
“The government must treat this investigation as a wake-up call and act against the soaring number of mixed-sex wards in the NHS today.”
‘He started to touch me on my breasts’
In 2012, Alexis – a mother who worked as a teacher – entered care following the death of her brother.
Undiagnosed with autism, she complained of a sexual assault by a male patient at Kent’s Littlebrook hospital on Christmas Day in 2013 after she was placed on an all-male ward.
Alexis Quinn was a British youth swimmer. Pic: Alexis Quinn
“I was in such a bad way… it was Christmas Day and I wasn’t with my little girl,” she said.
“He pressed me up against the door and lifted my top up. And he started to touch me on my breasts and then pulled my trousers down.
“All I could hear was his breathing and everything was slow and really loud and [I remember] not being able to move and being stuck.”
In a letter to her family in early 2014, Kent and Medway NHS Trust said Alexis “should not have been admitted as the sole female patient on a ward with other male patients” and committed to her safeguarding.
But just months later in 2014, Alexis made a second complaint after being moved to yet another mixed-gender care setting at St Martin’s Hospital in Kent.
The University of Edinburgh graduate said: “I was getting some treatment in a treatment room with a female nurse.
“I’d just come in from a run so I was wearing running shorts and a running vest top and a male patient came into the treatment room and started groping me on my breasts and on my bum.”
Addressing the second complaint, Kent and Medway NHS Trust said it was “unfortunate that incidents like these occur due to the acute nature of the patients admitted” to the ward.
Alexis’s alleged attackers faced no criminal action because they were deemed “not to have the capacity to go through a police investigation,” according to her mother Linda.
Alexis Quinn says she suffered a black eye as a result of being restrained in 2015. Pic: Alexis Quinn
Kent and Medway NHS Trust told Sky News it has eradicated mixed wards, adding: “We continue to offer out sincerest apologies to Alexis for the unacceptable behaviour she experienced when she was in our care.”
Sectioned under the Mental Health Act and legally detained, Alexis spent almost four years in largely locked-in care environments, including the now-closed Milton Park Therapeutic Campus in Bedfordshire, where she said she had to shower in front of male staff members.
‘I felt sick… and I just cried’
Like Alexis, autism patient Rivkah Grant said she found herself exposed to mixed-gender NHS mental health inpatient settings when battling depression.
The 34-year-old law graduate, originally from Enfield, north London, said she was sexually assaulted by a male healthcare worker while on a female ward at Chase Farm Hospital in 2016.
“There was one staff member and he seemed really nice and supportive,” she told Sky News and The Independent.
“I didn’t realise at the time that this was a bad thing – that he was in my room when I was by myself in the night with the door shut.”
She described being sexually assaulted by the staff member, saying: “He said to me that I must promise not to tell anyone, [or] he’d lose his job.
“I felt sick and I suddenly felt it all – what has happened? And I just cried.”
Autism patient Rivkah Grant said she was sexually assaulted by a male healthcare worker
Following the incident, Rivkah said she was moved to a mixed-sex ward, despite having told staff she’d been sexually assaulted.
Her attacker was convicted in June 2017 following a police investigation.
‘There is no safety in mental health hospitals’
North London Mental Health Partnership, which now runs Chase Farm Hospital, said the safety of its users is the top priority and that it is “deeply sorry” for what happened to Rivkah.
It said it has since strengthened its safeguarding process.
“I thought I was in a safe place,” Rivkah said. “And you believe you when you’re in a hospital, you should be safe. You’re in a place where there’s 24/7 care.
“And unfortunately, obviously, I’ve learned that there is no safety in mental health hospitals.
“I know I’m not the only person who has been through it.”
In 2020, after the Care Quality Commission raised national concerns over sexual abuse in mental health services, the NHS set up new guidelines under its “sexual safety collaboratives”.
Just six trusts have provided evidence they have met the collaboratives’ guidelines, in response to Sky News’ FOI requests.
‘He’s a sexual predator’
In 2015, Stephanie Tutty sought help from Essex mental health services while dealing with the trauma of a rape she suffered in her youth.
While under the care of Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, the 28-year old mother-of-two said she suffered repeated sexual abuse by a male staff member over a five-month period.
Stephanie Tutty said she suffered repeated sexual abuse by a male staff member. Pic: Stephanie Tutty
After a two-year investigation, she said she was told by police in 2017 that her case could not proceed due to the low likelihood of conviction.
She said: “What happened with [the alleged abuser] will always have a lasting impact on me, even more so than the first rape that made me unwell in the first place.
“He is a predator, with no other words for him – he’s a sexual predator.”
Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust told Sky News and The Independent that reports like Stephanie’s are immediately referred to the safeguarding team and fully investigated.
Charlie Brooker, honorary professor of criminology and mental health at London’s Royal Holloway University, has examined the relationship between sexual assault and mental illness.
He told Sky News and The Independent there should now be an inquiry into sexual safety in mental health wards.
Professor Charlie Brooker has called for an inquiry into sexual safety in mental health wards
He said: “If an inquiry was set up to look at sexual safety in mental health inpatient wards – because in my opinion, it should be – it would be fascinating to see how many people came forward and wanted to give evidence.
“I won’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t several thousand.”
What has the NHS and the government said?
In a statement, NHS England said: “We are taking action to ensure the safety of patients and staff, including rolling out better reporting mechanisms, training and support as part of the NHS’s new Sexual Safety Charter.
“NHS England has advised all Trusts and local health systems to appoint a domestic abuse and sexual violence lead to support patients and staff to report incidents and access support, with more than 300 now in place.”
NHS England went on to cite its commitment to the 2020 government-backed sexual safety protections, despite only six trusts demonstrating their application.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Sexual violence or misconduct of any kind is unacceptable and has no place in the NHS, and NHS organisations have a responsibility to protect both staff and patients.
“We are working closely with the NHS to ensure anyone receiving treatment in a mental health facility receives safe, high-quality care, and is looked after with dignity and respect.”
UK
Nigel Farage’s deportation plan relies on these conditions – legal expert explains if it could work
Explaining how they plan to tackle what they described as illegal migration, Nigel Farage and his Reform UK colleague Zia Yusuf were happy to disclose some of the finer details – how much money migrants would be offered to leave and what punishments they would receive if they returned.
But the bigger picture was less clear.
How would Reform win a Commons majority, at least another 320 seats, in four years’ time – or sooner if, as Mr Farage implied, Labour was forced to call an early election?
How would his party win an election at all if, as its leader suggested, other parties began to adopt his policies?
Politics latest: Starmer ‘angry’ about Farage’s language on migrant hotels
Highly detailed legislation would be needed – what Mr Farage calls his Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill.
But Reform would not have a majority in the House of Lords and, given the responsibilities of the upper house to scrutinise legislation in detail, it could take a year or more from the date of an election for his bill to become law.
Reform’s four-page policy document says the legislation would have to disapply:
• The United Nations refugee convention of 1951, extended in 1967, which says people who have a well-founded fear of persecution must not be sent back to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom
• The United Nations convention against torture, whose signatories agree not expel, return or extradite anyone to a country where there are substantial grounds to believe the returned person would be in danger of being tortured
• The Council of Europe anti-trafficking convention, which requires states to provide assistance for victims
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Farage sets out migration plan
According to the policy document, derogation from these treaties is “justified under the Vienna Convention doctrine of state necessity”.
That’s odd, because there’s no mention of necessity in the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties – and because member states can already “denounce” (leave) the three treaties by giving notice.
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It would take up to a year – but so would the legislation. Only six months’ notice would be needed to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, another of Reform’s objectives.
Read more:
Women and children will be detained under Farage plans
Far right ’emboldened’ says MP as Starmer faces mounting pressure over immigration
Mr Farage acknowledged that other European states were having to cope with an influx of migrants. Why weren’t those countries trying to give up their international obligations?
His answer was to blame UK judges for applying the law. Once his legislation had been passed, Mr Farage promised, there would be nothing the courts could do to stop people being deported to countries that would take them. His British Bill of Rights would make that clear.
Courts will certainly give effect to the will of parliament as expressed in legislation. But the meaning of that legislation is for the judiciary to decide. Did parliament really intend to send migrants back to countries where they are likely to face torture or death, the judges may be asking themselves in the years to come.
They will answer questions such as that by examining the common law that Mr Farage so much admires – the wisdom expressed in past decisions that have not been superseded by legislation. He cannot be confident that the courts will see the problem in quite the same way that he does.
Six people are believed to have been injured after dog attacks in Leicestershire, police have said.
Officers received two calls regarding dog attacks in the area of Beveridge Lane, Bardon Hill, on Thursday morning – one at 6.30am and the other at 7.44am.
Leicestershire Police said that in the first call to police, a person reported seeing a man being attacked by two dogs.
Upon arrival, no dogs were located, but a victim was identified.
Later, in the second call to the force, three people were reported to have been bitten in the same location.
Two dogs – confirmed to be Caucasian shepherds – were then discovered after firearms officers, a police dog and its handler were deployed.
The force added that both dogs were safely removed and are now being held in secure kennels.
In an update on Tuesday, officers said that two further people had come forward to report they were bitten by a dog in the same location at the time, bringing the total to six.
Read more from Sky News:
‘Headphone dodgers’ targeted by new TfL campaign
Epping migrant hotel resident appears in court
Women and children will be detained under Farage deportation plans
Two people, a girl aged 17 and a man aged 47, were arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dangerously out of control dog in a public place.
The man was also arrested for a further two offences under the Animal Welfare Act. Both have been released under investigation.
Leicestershire Police also said it made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct because of a prior report made about the dogs.
If you want a dissection of whether the £10bn cost of Reform UK’s new deportation policy is an underestimate, the analysis that follows is going to disappoint.
Likewise, if you are here to hear chapter and verse about the unacknowledged difficulties in striking international migrant returns agreements – which are at the heart of Nigel Farage’s latest plan – or a piece that dwells on how he seemed to hand over questions of substance and detail to a colleague, again, prepare to be let down.
Like a magician’s prestige, if you laser focus on the policy specifics of Tuesday’s Farage small boat plan – outlined in a vast hangar outside Oxford, striking for its scale and echo – you risk misunderstanding the real trick, and Reform’s objective for the day.
Politics latest: Farage told to apologise for small boats crisis
For Farage has been around long enough in British politics that we should acknowledge upfront how he pulls the wool over his opponents’ eyes, and hence why he seems to wrongfoot them so regularly.
The intent was not to present proposals that will turn into policy reality in 2029.
Nor was it about converting voters in any great number to Reform – if you warmed to Farage before, you might like him a bit more after this, in your view, straight-talking press conference.
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Farage’s deportation plan: Analysed
If you detested him, you will likely feel that more strongly and draw comparisons with Enoch Powell. I suspect he will be unbothered by either.
Instead, his announcement was about two things: seizing the agenda (ensuring more coverage of an issue redolent of the failure of the two biggest parties in British politics); and then putting both those other parties on the spot.
Success or failure for Farage, in other words, will come in how the Labour and Tory parties respectively respond in the coming days. Look what he’s done to the Tories.
The real policy meat of his speech comes in the Farage promise to rip up the post-Second World War settlement for refugees, drawn up with fresh memories of persecuted hordes fleeing the Nazis.
Along with an exit from the European Convention on Human Rights, the Reform UK leader would pause Britain’s membership of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UN Convention Against Torture, and the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention.
Read more: Is it time for a different approach to stop people smugglers?
The pause of British membership of these treaties and conventions may even turn out to be temporary, he said.
“We do think there is hope that the 1951 Refugee Convention of the UN can be revisited and redefined for the modern world,” he said.
But action, he argues, is needed now because the 1951 UN Refugee Convention obliges signatories to settle anyone with a “well-founded fear” of persecution.
That, critics say, has become the “founding charter” of today’s people-smuggling industry and allows traffickers the right to offer a legal guarantee that if their clients make it to shore they’re covered – and boast this works in 98% of cases for the Sudanese and Syrians, and 87% for Eritreans – the recently updated approval rates. A big moment for a major party.
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Farage questioned over deportation plans
Yet this is almost – but not quite – the Conservative position. On 6 June this year, Kemi Badenoch gave a speech saying she was minded to pull out of the European Convention of Human Rights, and had commissioned a review led by Lord Woolfson to examine whether and how ECHR withdrawal, and pulling out of the the Refugee Convention and the European Convention Against Trafficking, might help.
So she added: “I won’t commit my party to leaving the ECHR or other treaties without a clear plan to do so and without a full understanding of all the consequences.
“We saw that holding a referendum without a plan to get Brexit done, led to years of wrangling and endless arguments until we got it sorted in 2019. We cannot go through that again.
“I want us to fully understand and debate what the unintended consequences of that decision might be and understand what issues will still remain unresolved even if we leave.
“It is very important for our country that we get this right. We must look before we leap.”
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In other words, what Reform UK did was steal a march on a likely Tory decision at conference.
Farage has eaten Badenoch’s homework. And she has been left accusing him of being a copycat of a policy she hadn’t quite adopted.
Then there is Labour. They accept the ends of Farage’s argument, but not, it seems, the means.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is reviewing parts of the European Convention on Human Rights – Article 3 (which prohibits torture, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment) and Article 8 (which protects the right to a family life).
But that hasn’t emerged yet, and will not, at its maximalist outcome, recommend the UK withdrawal from the convention.
And will Labour strategists really want the spectre of ministers having to repeatedly argue in favour of ECHR membership in interviews, given that is likely to be the position of two of their biggest opponents? Another conundrum for Labour, which has Farage as the author.
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From Saturday: Police clash with protesters
Then there is the question of language for both Labour and the Tories. Dare they go as far as Reform UK and adopt a tone more aggressive than anything seen in recent years – one which talks of “invasions” and “fighting age males” and sending people back to “where they came from”?
Will both political parties hold that line that this language, in their view, goes too far?
Tuesday’s speech was less about voters, more about Westminster politics as we enter political season. All done at an hour-long press conference that gave Farage a platform. Can the other party leaders now look like they’re ignoring him and wrestle back the microphone? Or can they not help themselves and respond in kind?
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