Sedated, abused and confined in bleak wards: a woman's life inside Broadmo

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Sedated, abused and confined in bleak wards: a woman's life inside Broadmoor

In a new book, Janet Cresswell, who spent 25 years in the top security unit, reveals her dark world. By Sophie Goodchild
Published: 18 September 2005

Janet Cresswell, the award-winning playwright who spent 25 years in Broadmoor, has written a shocking exposé of life behind the walls of the psychiatric hospital and the harsh treatment of women patients.

Her autobiography paints a bleak picture of how women are subjected to demeaning room searches, of drugged-up patients developing serious health problems as a side effect of their medication and of widespread self-harm among the female population who are held on draughty Victorian wards.

Ms Cresswell, now 74, was transferred into a medium-secure unit from the Berkshire hospital two years ago after spending nearly a third of her life with serial killers and rapists, despite the fact she had killed no one. The grandmother was sent to Broadmoor after attacking her psychiatrist with a vegetable knife, a serious offence but one that does not normally merit such long incarceration.

Her book, Ox-bow, also reveals how vulnerable female patients used to mix with serial rapists at hospital disco evenings arranged by staff. This practice has now been stopped after a former member of staff complained to the hospital authorities.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article313464.ece