Easy News: an extract on the Winterbourne View abuse scandal
A newspaper by and for people with learning disabilities
Care home abuse exposed
In 2011 the BBC showed a programme called Panorama which upset a lot of people.
It showed people with learning disabilities being abused by care workers in a private hospital.
The hospital was called Winterbourne View. After the programme, it was investigated by the police.
In 2012, 11 care workers were put on trial to decide if they were guilty of crimes.
Six care workers have now gone to jail.
Five others have been given suspended sentences. This means they do not go to prison unless they get into trouble again.
The Judge said that if the BBC had not shown the abuse, the staff would have carried on being cruel.
A man who works for the BBC filmed the abuse. This video was shown to the court during the trial.
‘The abuse went on a long time’
Families of the people who had been abused said that it was very upsetting to watch the videos.
The families said that the abuse must have been going on for a very long time.
The hospital was owned by a company called Castlebeck.
The families want Castlebeck to give money to their sons and daughters to make up for what happened to them.
Castlebeck said that they made changes to make sure that this kind of abuse does not happen again.
One of the care workers said that the hospital was a very difficult place to work.
He said that there were not enough staff and they had to work long hours with no breaks.
The government minister for care, Norman Lamb, said the case had shown big problems with social care.
They must not happen again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-care-network/2013/jan/23/easy-news-extract-winterbourne-view
