Medomsley ‘homicide’ sufferer confirmed indicators of ‘strangulation’ in keeping with household
David Caldwell was sentenced to three months for minor theft offences in 1981. His sister Carol Kyle, who identified his body, believes he was strangled.
Neville Husband was ‘Britain’s most prolific sex offender since Jimmy Savile’
A teenager at the controversial Medomsley detention centre looked like he had been strangled before he died, his family told the Mirror. Tragic David Victor Caldwell was sentenced to three months for minor theft offences in 1981 when he was just 18. We told how his loved ones believed that he had been beaten up and bullied by staff there in the weeks before he died.
We tracked down his sister Carol Kyle, now 65, who identified his body. She revealed that there was clear evidence of him being strangled. She said: “There was bruising on his neck and on his arms. His neck was the worst. It was terrible to see him like that in the Chapel of Rest. I think that he was strangled.
READ MORE: Detention centre officer uncovered as ‘most prolific sex offender in British history’READ MORE: Medomsley detention centre death ‘should be investigated as murder’
“We know that he was attacked by staff before he died because I was told that by one of the inmates. He was beaten in the shower. But of course they are going to cover that up.”
Breaking down in tears, she added: “I am still upset by it now. He was my little brother. He was so young and vulnerable, he was soft, really.
“I also saw bruises on a visit to Medomsley, but he said ‘shhh or I will get more’. I wish that I had said something then.”
David, originally from South Tyneside, was examined on arrival at the centre on Dec 15, 1981 and “no signs of any infection or injury were noted”, an official report revealed. Next day he was seen by the doctor who recorded that he suffered from asthma but was fit to do PE. On Boxing Day he was sick and requested another asthma inhaler which he was given. Three days later, he was visited by his sister Carol who saw bruising to his face and noticed his hand was swollen. David told her bruising on his legs was caused by ‘the screws’, and that he got hit sometimes for not saying ‘Sir’. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman Adrian Usher released his report into a vile paedophile ring at the centre, in Consett, Co Durham, earlier this month.
He found detainees were routinely assaulted, and uncovered evidence of the worst sex offender in British history, Neville Husband, who sexually abused ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ while working as a cook there. David’s other sister Sylvia, 58, told how her mother, also Sylvia, asked for justice for David in the days before she died, at 82, in 2020. Sylvia, of Leeds, said: “They have obviously tried to strangle David.
“My mam tried to get justice for him for years, but had no joy whatsoever.” David suffered an acute asthma episode and was seen gasping for breath in the hours before his untimely death on Jan 12, 1982, less than a month after he arrived at Medomsley.
An inquest found that he had ‘suffered respiratory failure as a result of an asthma attack’. It concluded the death was as a result of natural causes. Ian Angus Shackelton, also 18, died four days after his arrival at Medomsley in Sept, 1981, as a result of not being properly treated for his type 1 diabetes. Prisons Ombudsman Adrian Usher told the Mirror: “In my view, the tragic death of David Caldwell was, arguably, avoidable. We said in the report that Mr Caldwell showed no signs of injury at the time of his death.
“We also said that allegations of Mr Caldwell being injured by staff weeks prior to his death were not investigated properly at the time.” Youth Justice Minister Jake Richards has apologised and called detainees’ treatment at the centre “a monstrous perversion of justice”.
Five retired officers were convicted of abuse in 2019.
