Handcuffed by police, the autistic boy of seven who trashed his bedroom
A SEVEN-year-old autistic boy was handcuffed by police after he had an outburst in his bedroom.
Officers restrained Daniel Gourlay after they were called in by a person who was caring for him.
Last night his mother, Barbara Irvine, lambasted the heavyhanded officers as she called for an earlier diagnosis of the condition that afflicts her son.
Daniel suffers from a type of autism called pathological demand avoidance (PDA), which means he is unable to cope with the smallest changes to his routine.
In May last year, months before his diagnosis was finally confirmed, Miss Irvine said matters spiralled out of control when he refused to go on an organised trip.
The mother-of-three said: ‘He kicked off at the house because he didn’t want to go horse-riding. He trashed his bedroom and chucked a chest of drawers down the stairs.’
Two officers, one male and one female, arrived following a call by a carer.
‘They told me it would be best if I stayed downstairs,’ said Miss Irvine. ‘But I was crying, I could hear Daniel crying, and I went up to see him. As I went into the room, I saw that Daniel was handcuffed by his right hand to this police officer.
‘He said he was spitting and kicking and I said, “do you know he may have autistic spectrum disorder?”
‘I knelt down and he cuddled in. I asked the officer if he could remove the handcuff, which he did. But he just seemed to think he was a little boy who needed a firm hand. It didn’t seem appropriate – he was only seven.’
Miss Irvine, a 45-year-old nurse from Inverness, added: ‘I work in medical admissions and we see drunks and drug addicts every day but we don’t treat them like that, so why treat him that way?’
She has since agreed with Police Scotland that, in the event of future call-outs, a note would be placed on the system to advise how to respond to Daniel, including not making eye contact or talking to him directly.
Miss Irvine, who is also mother to Joshua, 14, and Emily, 12, said: ‘Even now, Daniel is still scared when he sees the police, in case he gets handcuffed.
‘If he had been diagnosed sooner it could have prevented all this trauma from happening.’
She suspected Daniel had autism when he was 18 months old, but says her concerns were ignored for years by her health authority.
His behaviour, including butting and biting, was attributed to factors such as his father dying when he was five. It was only when she asked for Daniel, now nine, to be assessed by professionals outwith NHS Highland that the breakthrough came. Experts at Glasgow Royal Hospital for Children concluded in February that he had PDA.
Miss Irvine said: ‘I just cried when they told me because I already knew and at last I didn’t feel like I was making it up.
‘Daniel’s like Jekyll and Hyde. He can’t cope with change and he needs to feel in control.’
While campaigning for earlier diagnosis, Miss Irvine is also preparing to lodge a complaint about her treatment through the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.
Jenny Paterson, director of the National Autistic Society Scotland, said the case was ‘very troubling’ and called for police and criminal justice personnel to undergo specialist autism training.
A spokesman for NHS Highland said: ‘We appreciate the family has concerns and would invite them to contact our child health commissioner to arrange a meeting.’
Highland Council said it would make contact ‘to discuss the individual concerns’ Miss Irvine has.
‘It didn’t seem appropriate’ ‘I just cried when they told me’