Autistic man from Brighton to be released from hospital after 21 years

Tony Hickmott has been given the green light to finally leave the secure hospital where he has spent the last two decades.

The 45-year-old, who is autistic, will move to his own home close to his elderly parents in Brighton.

His father Roy, 82, said: “He wants to go to the pub with me. I last took him to a pub when he was 18 and he had a lemonade and a cheese roll.”

“I’ll have a pint and he can have a half and he says he'll have a cheese roll. That’s what he wants, a cheese roll. I can't wait. It'll be heaven.”

Tony Hickmott. Credit: South Coast News (Image: South Coast News)

Tony was sectioned after he had a mental health crisis in 2001, and has been held in a unit 120 miles away from his elderly parents ever since.

Despite a hard-fought campaign by his family he was left marooned in a locked room almost 24 hours a day in the hospital facility in Kent.

Roy added: “It has been a really long journey but I’m looking forward to having him back. 

“You wouldn’t treat an animal the way Tony has been treated. It is shocking and shows how uncaring we have become as a society.”

Last year a senior judge criticised his detention, telling authorities to find a home near his parents, in Brighton.

Now after 21 years he is finally going home after the council found him his own bungalow just five miles from his parents.

Tony and his parents. Credit: South Coast News (Image: South Coast News)

His mum Pamela, a retired NHS worker, said she and her husband had fought for more than 20 years to get the proper care for their son.

“I’m overjoyed,” said Pamela, 78. “It has been a long, long road and we have had to overcome huge hurdles to get the authorities to see sense but we are delighted we will finally have our boy back.”

“We have had to fight years to get this far. The amount of bureaucracy, inefficiency and failings on behalf of the authorities has been staggering. 

“Tony hasn’t had any specialist treatment for his autism in all that time. It’s shocking.”

According to a BBC investigation, there are around 2,000 people with learning disabilities or autism detained in specialist hospitals across England.

Tony is one of 100 people in England with learning disabilities who have been held for more than 20 years in a secure Assessment and Treatment Units (ATU) – units which were only designed to be used as a short-term safe space in a crisis.

He was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2001 and his parents were told he would receive treatment for nine months before returning home. 

Roy and Pam Hickmott. Credit: South Coast News (Image: South Coast News)

Although he was eventually declared "fit for discharge" in 2013, he has waited another nine years while the authorities find him a suitable home with the right level of care. 

Whistleblower Phil Devine, who worked at the private facility where Mr Hickmott lives, said he was “treated like an animal” and was the “loneliest man in the hospital”. 

The support worker said unlike other patients, Tony had very little freedom and spent all of his time in "solitary confinement". 

Tony's parents were previously forbidden from talking about his case because of a gagging order which was overturned last year. 

They are furious that action was only taken when the gagging order was lifted and they were finally allowed to speak publicly about the scandal.

“It’s astonishing,” said Roy, a retired electrical engineer. “A lot of people have made a lot of money out of this case. 

“Officials say it has cost around £11 million to look after Tony for the last 20 years - but that is on the low side. He could have stayed in a five-star hotel for that. 

“It has been such a waste of everyone’s time and money though I’m relieved he is finally coming home to accommodation more suited to his needs.

“Having fought tooth and nail for this for the last 20 years has been an enormous strain on Pam and I but it is nothing to what Tony has suffered. 

“He was the loneliest man in the country, locked up all the time in solitary confinement when he should have been having specialist care for autism to help him realise his potential. He was just chucked in a room and forgotten - it’s a scandal.”

• READ MORE: Autistic man from Brighton 'trapped in hospital for 20 years'

Earlier this year, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the hospital were Tony was being treated was failing to meet people's needs and inspectors halted further admissions because they believed "people would or may be exposed to significant risk of harm".

The report highlighted staff shortages, a lack of training and an increase in restrictive interventions. It reported how relatives of patients said their loved ones were heavily medicated and had few meaningful activities to enjoy.

Last year, a select committee of MPs backed calls from campaigners to end the scandal of autistic people being wrongly detained, saying such hospitals should be closed by 2024.

A care team for Tony is now being assembled and he is expected to move to his new home on November 1.

Roy said: “We’re looking forward to that date enormously and we don’t want to see any slippage from the authorities.”

Robert Persey, Brighton and Hove Council's executive director for health and adult social care admitted there had been unacceptable delays in Mr Hickmott's case - but said the process was both complicated and costly. Care in the community must be funded by the local authority.

He said: “It has taken far too long. It's complicated trying to get all the elements like housing and carers all ready at the right time.

“Local government [funding] is continually being cut. Yet we have a responsibility to look after these people to the optimum level we can, and the funding is really challenging to find and achieve that.”