An autistic man who has been detained in hospital for 20 years was treated 'like an animal', a whistleblower has alleged.
Tony Hickmott, 44, was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2001 and taken from his parents' home in Brighton, East Sussex.
Though his family were initially told he would be away for nine months, he has lived in a secure Assessment and Treatment Unit for two decades – and was only declared 'fit for discharge' by psychiatrists in 2013.
Mr Hickmott is still waiting for local authorities to find him a suitable home, and his elderly parents are now fighting to get him rehoused in the community. The hospital has not been named for his care and wellbeing.
He is one of 100 people who have spent more than 20 years in ATUs. A BBC investigation found that 350 people have been detained in specialist hospitals for more than a decade, and more than 2,000 patients are being held in hospitals and other secure settings across England.
Details of Mr Hickmott's ordeal became public last month, after an order preventing reporting of the case was overturned in court.
A support worker where the 44-year-old has been detained has now claimed that Mr Hickmott was the 'loneliest man in the hospital' and that – like 'an animal' – only his basic needs were met.
Phil Devine described how he felt complicit in the autistic man's 'neglect and abuse' while he worked at the private, low-secure hospital between 2015 and 2017.
Tony Hickmott, 44, was sectioned under the Mental Health...
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