Whorlton Hall: Two men lose appeal against conviction

Peter Bennett and Matthew Banner were found guilty of ill-treatment of patients at Whorlton Hall, a 17-bed independent unit for people with complex needs near Barnard Castle, County Durham.

The pair were filmed by an undercover BBC reporter who was employed at the unit following a tip-off that some staff were mistreating patients.

Olivia Davies used a secret camera to expose the shocking handling of vulnerable residents in 2019.

The defendants, along with co-accused Ryan Fuller and John Sanderson, were caught on a hidden camera taunting and antagonising the vulnerable residents for their own enjoyment.

The four staff members caught on the secret camera whilst working at Whorlton Hall (Image: CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE)

Their barristers told a hearing in London in September that their actions “did not meet the test for ill-treatment”, but in a ruling on Friday, three judges ruled the pair should lose their appeals.

Lord Justice Singh said: “In our judgment, the questions which this case raised on the relevant counts against these appellants were classic ones for the tribunal of fact, the jury, to decide after hearing all the evidence.”

He continued: “They were well able to decide for themselves whether what they saw and heard in the evidence as a whole constituted the offence of ill-treatment.”

Peter Bennett arriving at an earlier court case (Image: The Northern Echo)

Bennett said on camera he had invented an imaginary “man button” to summon male staff for a female patient who had clearly said she did not want men to look after her.

He was found guilty of two charges of ill-treatment relating to two female patients, on January 6 and February 24, 2019.

Banner, formerly of Newton Aycliffe but now of no fixed abode, was involved in several incidents where he was caught on camera aggravating one of the vulnerable patients.

He was found guilty of five charges all relating to the same patient at Whorlton Hall on separate occasions between January 6 and February 22, 2019.

Matthew Banner appearing at an earlier court hearing (Image: The Northern Echo)

David Callan, for Bennett, told the Court of Appeal that his client “may not have been professional in twanging a balloon” in front of the patient, but this was “not ill-treatment”.

He added that he did not think it was a “sensible development of the law” to turn “what might be unprofessional behaviour into a crime”.

Stephen Constantine, representing Banner, said: “It cannot surely be that every kind of unfavourable treatment, rough handling or unsympathetic dealings, can necessarily amount to ill-treatment.”

The former specialised hospital unit at Whorlton Hall (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

Durham Constabulary launched an investigation and the hospital was closed, with 16 staff suspended and patients transferred, in the wake of the revelations being aired on television.

In January, Bennett and Banner were told their four-month sentence would be suspended for 18 months and ordered him to carry out 280 hours of unpaid work.

Ryan Fuller was told his three-month sentence would be suspended for 15 months and ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work.

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John Sanderson was told his six-week sentence would be suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

Five of their co-accused were cleared of all the charges they faced during the trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Anne Richardson, prosecuting the trial, read out a series of victim impact statements on behalf of the residents who were tormented by the defendants.

She told the court it was impossible for the residents to express how much the defendants’ abuse had impacted them due to the complex nature of their medical conditions.