Horror of an innocent boy locked up for 13 years... and why I had to fight for his freedom

MY constituency surgeries normally involve conversations about broadband, parking and council issues – routine business for most MSPs. However, in June last year, I felt compelled to act after a mother walked in to tell me her story.

Tracy Gibbon said her autistic son, Kyle, had been incarcerated in the State Hospital at Carstairs, Lanarkshire – a psychiatric facility that houses some of Scotland’s most dangerous offenders.

She made a plea for assistance to help return him to her care.

The more I learned about this harrowing and shocking case, the more questions there were.

Why was a young man who has managed to live with his siblings and mother for the first 18 years of his life, upon assessment, be deemed unfit for society?

Why, after 13 years, is he still not considered to have been sufficiently rehabilitated?

Why does his mother feel that her complaints about his treatment in Carstairs have not been properly investigated?

Why is it considered appropriate to sedate, seclude and punish a young man with a behavioural and social disability?

Why is an autistic patient, who medical professionals argue lacks the maturity and understanding to make decisions regarding his medical treatment, sharing facilities with people who have committed serious crimes, resulting in bullying and intimidation?

Why isn’t there a person-centred, therapeutic plan that would allow Kyle to live with his mother?

AT FIRST, I imagined this was a one-off case. It was hard to believe that health professionals still responded to mental illness by institutionalising patients and deeming them unfit for community-based support. What this case has uncovered, however, is that Miss Gibbon and Kyle are not alone. The more I learned, the more I feared that this was common practice.

My concern was that those who entered the system at a time when attitudes may have been different continue to be failed by those who should be supporting them.

Last week, the issue was highlighted by the Mail on Sunday after a Freedom of Information request revealed that nine patients at Carstairs are in a similar situation.

These are people who have never been convicted of any crime.

Following the disclosures, I am pleased that the Scottish Government has agreed to review the legislation under which someone with autism is detained. Hopefully that will lead to a change in the law.

It could open the door to families, such as the Gibbons, being able to appeal.

However, it should not have taken a case like this, dragging on for 13 years, for someone to listen.

The Government must act quickly – every day spent in Carstairs is a living nightmare for someone like Kyle. Miss Gibbon, and other parents and family members like her, understandably want to look after their loved ones at home or as close to home as possible.

They want them to get support, not to be locked up among some of the country’s worst offenders.

Having reviewed the list of complaints Miss Gibbon has submitted to the advocacy team at Carstairs, I have been, frankly, disgusted at the haphazard nature of the responses.

Miss Gibbon has flagged issues with staff restraining Kyle, against medical advice.

She questioned why Kyle was returned to a ward that medical professionals deemed inappropriate for his needs, and asked why his calls are now monitored, after allegations that certain members of staff were bullying him.

There are also claims that staff were withholding juice and sweets from him as a form of punishment.

My impression is that there has been a reluctance from Carstairs to provide evidence that these claims have been fully investigated.

There has been no word of the outcome of any internal inquiries.

I have real concerns for Kyle’s chances of rehabilitation in this hospital – although I assume this is the desired outcome.

In recent months, due to a change in medication and allegations that staff were intimidating and provoking patients, Miss Gibbon requested information about the handling of Kyle’s complaints against specific staff, and access to medical records and reviews.

She continues to be denied access to these documents.

Further, second opinions on psychiatric treatment from an independent reviewer outwith Carstairs were not provided.

As far as his mother is concerned, Kyle has been subject to sedation, seclusion, intimidation and staff negligence.

THE practice of restraining Kyle is said to have resulted in injuries so severe his family were advised by his psychiatrist not to bring his young niece and nephew to visit, because they would be distressed by ‘burn marks’ on his face. Following one-to-one support in a different ward, Kyle’s psychiatrist commented that it had become apparent his agitation was a result of the unhealthy environment of his ward, and not his condition.

Despite this, Kyle returned to the ward that his physiatrist deemed unfit to support his needs.

He has felt so deprived of normality and a life he knows he is capable of living that he has expressed suicidal thoughts in the past.

It does not seem right that he is living in conditions that only seem to heighten his aggravation and prove detrimental to his condition.

Kyle’s case, and that of the others detained in Carstairs, reflects very badly on our modern society.

Surely there is a better, more compassionate way to deal with young men and women in this situation?

That’s why I’m encouraging people to support a crowdfunding campaign set up by Tracey on the JustGiving website, to pay for an independent psychiatrist who will assess Kyle and provide a diagnosis that will hopefully lead to him being returned to his family.

I am also now calling for an independent review into Kyle’s case.

There should also be a review of procedures at Carstairs, and, hopefully, government action to end the inappropriate and unjust criminalisation of autistic individuals.

It is beyond me how this stigmatising, backward, unsupportive treatment is still common practice.