Broadmoor is no ordinary hospital. Over 150 years old it’s more secure than most prisons. It’s held many of Britain’s most notorious criminals. Paedophiles, rapists and serial killers whose horrific crimes are judged to be the result of mental illness. This was the world’s first asylum for criminal lunatics. Inside Broadmoor: Criminally Insane, Channel 5 2023
Today a newly built Broadmoor hopes to revive the caring vision of its Victorian founders. But how did it become the secretive and feared institution is was for so long? ibid.
Inside Broadmoor are around 200 men, almost all convicted of shocking crimes. ibid.
1980s Broadmoor valued security and sometimes brutal containment over treatment. ibid.
World in Action deals with the conditions in a mental hospital … Powick Mental Hospital near Worcester built like a hundred others in this country by the Victorians for their lunatics … Some stay for ever … The state of the people who live here are appalling. World in Action: Ward F13, ITV 1968
Powick seems to have become infected with the hopelessness of the Annex inmates. Ibid.
F13: The patients are all female geriatrics … most are incontinent … There are 78 beds only inches apart. ibid.
A parade in Easter bonnet for the patients of a mental hospital [Mapperley in Nottingham]. Some of these people have spent many years here; a few have been here all their lives. But many of them come in just for the day. World in Action: Inside Out, ITV 1969
In the past few weeks Britain’s mental hospital have come in for a hammering. There have been charges of cruelty, carelessness and indifference at some hospitals. In others, the staff are tired and dispirited. ibid.
Some patients who had been inside for forty years were helped back into society. ibid.
Deep in the Berkshire countryside sits one of Britain’s most feared institutions, Broadmoor Hospital, a place where dangerous men are sent, when there’s nowhere else for them to go. Broadmoor: For the Criminally Insane s1e1, Channel 5 2024
A psychiatric hospital like no other. ibid.
Today Broadmoor is home to over 200 men, and for decades it’s treated some of Britain’s most notorious criminals.
Broadmoor’s patients are detained under the Mental Health Act. ibid.
For Broadmoor the first challenge is to safety contain new arrivals. ibid.
Broadmoor is home to some of the most difficult and dangerous patients in Britain, and looking after them is one of the most difficult and dangerous jobs in Britain. Broadmoor: For the Criminally Insane s1e2
‘You have a big control room which coordinates every patient movement.’ ibid. comment
1993: After the murder of shop assistant Nisha Sheth, Bryan was diagnosed with paranoid psychosis and schizophrenia and sent to Rampton high-security psychiatric hospital. He was described as a model prisoner. And after eight years he was discharged into community care. But far from being rehabilitated, in 2004 Bryan went on to commit an even more unthinkable crime.
‘A friend called Brian Cherry, whom he not only killed brutally, but also dismembered and fried his brains.’ ibid. comment
Today, patients are still sent to Broodmoor’s intensive care wards and secluded for safety. ibid.
Broadmoor Hospital, a place where dangerous men are sent when there’s nowhere else for them to go. Broadmoor: For the Criminally Insane s1e3
‘He [Jimi Savile] had charmed his way into a position of most extraordinary authority.’ ibid. comment
‘It really is the lunatic taking over the asylum.’ ibid.
Ronnie’s [Kray] life inside Broadmoor was a far cry from the other patients. ibid.
A small group of staff were sadistic and tended to have very fixed views of the patients – often saw them as animals. ibid. former trainee makes allegations
Inappropriate sexual relationships between staff and patients. ibid. psychology therapeutic unit scandal
This is the story of how to get out of Broadmoor … Breakouts from Broadmoor are incredibly rare. But not impossible. Broadmoor: For the Criminally Insane s1e4
1991: One of Broadmoor’s most dangerous and depraved patients managed to escape … He was convicted child rapist John Saunders. ibid.
‘1993: The Wolfman [Saunders] decides to escape again.’ ibid.
Every release from Broodmoor hospital has its risks. ibid.