Autistic patient’s horrific abuse at the hands of those meant to help her

DANNIELLE Attree is 25 years old, autistic and has spent half her life locked up in psychiatric institutions. In this time she has been held in solitary confinement, chemically coshed, violently restrained by teams of adults and, says her mother, sexually assaulted at two hospitals supposed to provide help and support.

The first occasion, which council officials told Kent Police they believe ‘on balance of probability’ occurred, was inside a treatment and recovery unit for women at a major charity-run mental health centre in the Midlands.

The second was at Littlebrook Hospital, where this creative character with a passion for drawing and music was detained for 551 days in segregation, sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

Her mother Andrea says her daughter was groomed by a support worker over eight months. This man befriended Dannielle and then raped her repeatedly over six week, taking her to an area on the hospital wards without cameras – even on her 24th birthday, allegedly after the safeguarding alarm had been raised.

Kent council officials, who oversee her care, have confirmed they believe there was sexual abuse and a suspect was suspended – yet a senior police officer told the family ‘evidential difficulties’ led to the case being closed.

‘I fear her case is just the tip of an iceberg,’ said Andrea, a mother of three. It is understood the accused man, who was born abroad, has returned to his home country.

Despite finally being moved to a specialist centre for people with autism in the North of England, Dannielle’s mental health has deteriorated and her eating disorders intensified, resulting in substantial weight loss and forced feeding.

‘Maybe I’m better off dead,’ Dannielle texted her mother when saying goodnight recently. ‘I hope I don’t wake up again.’