Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SEVEN TO FACE COURT OVER MUCKAMORE ABUSE CLAIMS
Accused ‘are staff in psychiatric ICU’
SEVEN people are to be prosecuted for the alleged ill-treatment of patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital, it was confirmed yesterday.
It is understood they are staff members in the psychiatric intensive care unit at the Co Antrim facility.
The hospital is run by the Belfast Health Trust and provides facilities for adults with severe learning disabilities and mental health needs.
Allegations of abuse began to emerge in 2017 and since then a number of people have been arrested and several staff have been suspended.
In a statement, the Public Prosecution
Service said: “Decisions have been taken to prosecute individuals reported on one police file for offences alleged to have been committed at Cranfield Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Muckamore Abbey Hospital.”
Prosecutors added the police file concerned a “range of offences including the alleged ill-treatment and wilful neglect of patients at the unit”.
PPS assistant director Martin Hardy said: “This decision follows a thorough consideration of all the evidence in an investigation file received from police in
April 2020. We have written to the families of the affected patients this morning to inform them of the decisions.
“A second investigation file received from police in December 2020 in relation to alleged ill-treatment at the hospital remains under active consideration. Decisions will issue in due course after a thorough consideration of all the available evidence.” It is understood the December file concerns eight suspects.
Head of the PSNI’S public protection branch, Det Chief Supt Anthony Mcnally, said the decision marks “significant progress in this police investigation”. He added: “Our specially trained officers will continue to provide support to the families whose loved ones are at the centre of this investigation. “The protection of our most vulnerable is a priority for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.”