“The brutality of it is something I remember 60 years later.”
Guy Whiting was just 14-years-old when he was locked up at the former Kirklevington Detention Centre, in Yarm, in 1966 for his role in a Post Office robbery.
He was only there for 12 weeks - but in that time, he says he was smacked in the face by prison officers and saw other staff petrify children so severely that they wet themselves.
The now 73-year-old said he tried to tow the line while watching on as other inmates were “slapped, kicked, and bullied” by staff.
And the grandad-of-three thinks Cleveland Police’s Operation Magnolia is “non-existent” - with 938 victims identified, 21 suspects interviewed, but not one person brought to justice.
Branding it a "whitewash", he claims that, after first getting in touch with the force to report his abuse, he was never recontacted by officers.
It comes as The Northern Echo this week exposes Douglas Harrison as the “sadistic” officer believed to have abused hundreds of boys at the site but died before he could be charged.
‘Dumbfounded’ youngsters were ‘petrified’
“It was horrendous, I had never been in trouble before”, Guy, who lives in Scarborough, said.
“It was all totally new to me. Fortunately I had been in a boarding school because my father was in the army, so I was used to towing the line.
“On the way there, one of the officers said we need to be really careful and said to do exactly everything they said. I thought, I can do that.
“We arrived at the reception centre and as soon as the police booked us in and left there was a lot of stuff on the desk and one of the officers just swiped everything onto the floor.
“He said: ‘Right you little ****, pick all of that up.’”
Guy said he tried to keep his head down and avoid trouble during his stint there, but recalled how other children were “petrified” of the officers.
“Some of the things I saw were pretty shocking”, he said. “Bullying from the staff, slaps, kicks, that sort of thing was pretty common.
“One time, it was bucketing down with rain. They used to march us up and down the corridor.
“Someone pulled me into the toilet and smacked me right in the face and in the head. I was dumbfounded.”
Guy said one of the most distressing incidents he witnessed took place in a workshop, where an officer would “line children up before punching them”.
The father-of-four explained: “We would be working away and all of a sudden he lined us all up and he would put his hand on your shoulder and you had to move your head out the way because he was going to punch you in the head.
“I looked to my right and there was this little lad and I noticed that there was a big pool in front of him. He had wet himself. It was just so vicious."
Guy, who later went on to have a successful career in the NHS working as a registered general nurse, said he felt some officers even got “pleasure out of hurting children”.
He continued: “It was just part of the regime. Everyone knew about it. They all knew exactly what was going on.
“It taught me about just how cruel people could be and how people in authority seem to have all this autonomy and just get away with it.
“Some officers were strict but there were others who had chosen to work there who clearly had psychological issues. They wanted to inflict pain on children.
“These children were coming from broken homes, the whole system was letting them down.
“There are people that, years later, are still scared by it - but it hasn't stopped me from having a successful career.”
'Magnolia is the right name for it - it is a whitewash'
Despite a brief period of reoffending, and being locked up for two years elsewhere for his involvement in a robbery, Guy turned his life around.
But when Cleveland Police launched its probe in 2014, he decided to get in touch with the force to tell them about the abuse he had suffered.
“I phoned them up and said I was there and I had a few unpleasant things happen to me when I was there”, Guy explained.
“They took my details and said someone would get back to me.”
But he claims nobody did.
Years later, when Guy had gotten in touch with solicitors, he decided to once again get back in touch with police.
He continued: “When I got through to them, they said check out and said we don’t know why we didn’t come back to you.”
But despite the investigation being ongoing for 12 years, justice has still not been served, and victims say they feel like they have been “forgotten”.
“It is a whitewash”, Guy argued. Magnolia is the right name for it.
Read more:
Kirklevington Detention Centre victims deserve justice - and time is running out
Still no justice for 'forgotten' abuse victims who had childhood 'ripped away'
'Evil' prison officer who 'abused' hundreds of boys at 'torture camp' exposed by Echo
“The officer [who I witnessed smacking children] I think was arrested but was ill and then died before any trial.
“This operation is non-existent. They have nearly 1,000 people complaining - you can’t tell me an investigation goes on 12 years and not one person has been prosecuted.
“It was pretty clear they didn’t want to find out what I had to say.”
Anyone who suffered abuse at Kirklevington Detention Centre can report this to Cleveland Police. Victims can also contact Oakwood Solicitors for advice on legal claims.
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