An
NHS trust deliberately obstructed a police investigation into the rape
of a transgender patient on an all-male secure psychiatric ward.
Male
patients chanted “no Adam’s apple” when the 5ft 3in biological female
arrived on the ward and within an hour the victim was raped in a
cupboard.
The
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust ignored dozens of
requests for records from detectives investigating the attack. Staff
accidentally forwarded an internal note saying “don’t give them any
more”. The obstructive behaviour meant a mentally ill patient wrongly
stood trial for the rape.
Two
men were tried this year but midway through proceedings detectives
cornered a staff member and finally obtained patient rotas that showed
one of the defendants could not have been involved. The judge discharged
Luther Badejo, 30, midway through the trial when the revelations
torpedoed the case against him. His co-defendant, Davointe Thomas, 27,
was convicted of rape and was handed an indefinite hospital order in
April.
A
source close to the investigation said the trust had “gone into
self-preservation mode” after the rape and was “obstructive from the
outset”.
MPs,
academics and campaigners have called for an inquiry into how the
hospital admitted a vulnerable biological woman onto a ward made up
entirely of men sectioned under the Mental Health Act, and its
“abhorrent” actions after the rape.
Inner
London crown court heard that Thomas followed the victim into a side
room. The victim was then pushed into a cupboard and raped shortly after
arriving at Lambeth Hospital, south London, on April 12, 2022. The
victim, who has female genitalia, had been transferred from a different
hospital to the wing, named Eden Ward.
Charlotte
Godber, defending Thomas, said there was “absolutely no safeguarding”
for the patient, who was greeted by the men on Eden Ward with chants of
“no Adam’s apple” and “are you a girl?”
The
victim, who cannot be named, was left suicidal by the attack, according
to an impact statement. “He’s ruined my life and taken away who I was.
Before this I was never afraid,” the victim said. “I can’t continue with
the statement, there are too many tears.”
Thomas
was said to have had a lookout during the rape, who was initially
thought to have been Badejo. But an internal report obtained by
detectives showed it was far more likely to have been another patient
named Nikita Mwamba, who has a history of sexual offending.
The
trust ignored dozens of requests for assistance from detectives and
failed to share vital evidence that would have led to his identification
as a suspect and prevented Badejo from being wrongly accused.
The
Times has discovered that key internal reports were redacted before
being sent to detectives, witnesses were interviewed only years after
the attack and it took a judge’s summons for the trust to share crucial
information with investigators.
Detective
Constable Michelle Elisio told the trial she made “repeated” contact
with the trust by phone and email, and described trying to extract
evidence as “exceptionally difficult”. A source said that more than 30
emails requesting information were sent in a two-month period last year,
but the trust still refused to clarify the identity of a “Patient F”
mentioned in a redacted report. Patient F was Mwamba.
Speaking
after he had been discharged from the trial, Badejo said: “This has
been hanging over me for three years, it’s been killing me and my
family. It should never have got this far. I just don’t understand why
it did.”
A
source close to the investigation said the trust had been “obstructive”
from the outset. “They decided to be the gatekeepers of crucial
evidence, rather than let experienced detectives decide what was
relevant,” they added.
Another
source said there had been an attempted “cover-up” by the trust, which
“cared more about protecting its own reputation than the pursuit of
justice”. They added: “They put the patient in danger in the first place
then blocked the police from finding out what had actually happened and
how.”
Rosie Duffield,
the independent MP for Canterbury, said there needed to be an urgent
inquiry, adding: “The fact this was able to happen in a supposedly safe
and secure medical setting is truly shocking.”
Professor Jo Phoenix,
an expert in women, crime and justice, called for a formal inquiry,
saying a biological woman being raped on an all-male ward “should have
been an impossibility”.
She
added: “The duty of care, the obligation to keep a vulnerable female
safe has been overriden by self-identification and a desire not to
offend. And then once that did happen, it seems as though the staff
conspired to cover up the shocking details of the case. How could the
staff and managers have not known this was inevitable? This is an abject
failure on every level.”
Kellie Maloney, the transgender former boxing promoter who represented Lennox Lewis
as Frank Maloney, described the trust’s conduct as “disgusting”.
“The
trust involved, and the hospitals, should be on trial here as well,”
Maloney said. “If they have put someone in there who has a vagina then
they are asking for trouble.”
South
London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said its decision to allow the
victim onto the ward was in line with NHS England policy at the time.
The trust apologised to police and the court over its failure to share
information.
Its
chief medical officer, Derek Tracy, said its processes had been
strengthened after the case. “Our thoughts remain with the victim of
this horrific crime,” he added. “We are deeply sorry for the trauma they
have experienced, and we continue to offer our full support to them.”
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