Dawlish Discussion

The unnamed victim claimed he was sexually and physically assaulted by Shane Jenkins and two other men over a four-month period.

A thug who blinded his lover by gouging out her eyes is to be questioned about alleged sex attacks at a psychiatric hospital.

Shane Jenkin, 33, will be asked about claims a fellow patient was also throttled to the point of unconsciousness and had pins inserted in his nipples and genitals.

Jenkin, who is in Langdon Hospital at Dawlish, Devon, after being jailed for life for his attack on Tina Nash, is believed to be one of three potential suspects.

Langdon Hospital. The elephant in the room in terms of the location of all the new housing development.

There, I've said it. And I don't care how politically incorrect that might deemed to be by some.

The patients at that hospital are there because they have been found guilty in our courts. They have mental health issues. How many have committed violent acts against others? 

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Killer-mental-health-patient-trip-shops-threw/story-15874310-detail/story.html#axzz2jfrq3m4r

Presumably if they are in the custody of Langdon Hospital then by definition they are not deemed mentally okay enough to be released into the community.

The hospital is a secure unit. Yet we all know that patients have escaped.  

I wonder just how much its original rural location determined its function within the NHS? 

It will no longer be rural. And I wonder just what potential buyers of the new houses will be told if they should ask what all those white buildings are, just over there, a mere few fields away.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/langdon_hospital_dawlish

They certainly wont tell prospective house buyers the truth, its time the can was well and truly opened on exactly what that place is and who is in there. For to long its been hidden under the guise of a hospital, when in fact its a secure prision for some of the countries worst life serving offenders who if in the USA would be facing execution. It needs a secondary security fence building all around the perimiter and the sign changing at the gate so that local residents and vistors alike know to stay clear

http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/news/axeman_s_murderous_attack_on_policeman_1_1983053

Note that: "He was ordered to be detained indefinitely at the Langdon Hospital, Dawlish, after Judge Phillip Wassall was told that two psychiatrists rated him as a danger to the public.".

Why is Jenkins going to be asked anything? He has been found clinically insane, has he not? the people who need to be questioned are those that are supposed to be responsible for the HOSPITAL ! Steven Will was a PATIENT at Langdon Hospital for the criminally insane. Who became violent when the nurse escorting him on a shopping trip !!!!!!!!!!!!!! advised him he had to go back to the HOSPITAL, because he had broken the rules of his outing by walking off from the nurse. I remember one case when they were installing a new security turn stile and the builders let two patients walk out. I believe one of them ended up in Cornwall. It's bad enough when a NORMAL criminal escapes prison, but what are the implications of inmates not only escaping from Langdon, but going on shopping trips?

Can I thank the Teignbridge, DCC for the discussions that took place with the people of Dawlish 

with our having such illustrious neighbours.

Democracy at Work.

Maybe its an issue that a rates review should be considered for Dawlish

Just as a matter of Interest, whereabouts Is Langdon Hospital In Dawlish? I know where the Community Hospital Is but not this hospital. Can someone tell me where It Is? How long ago did this hospital open?  

@stephen15 - Do you know where Sainsbury's is? Well, Langdon Hospital is opposite Sainsbury's, on the left hand side of the main road if travelling towards Exeter. White buildings set back a bit. Sign at entrance by main road says something like - NHS Langdon Hospital. No accident or emergency.    

From a freedom of information request one gets the impression that Lagdon Hospital is an open door, the figures for Absent Without Leave are

2003   23 , 2004  31,  2005  33,  2006  54,  2007  20,  2008  28,  2009  19,  2010  17,  2011  14,  2012  23,  2013  2 (This is until 1st April only)

Hope things improve because with the new class of inmates it  holds now we could all be murdered shopping at Sainsbury's.  

I'm not worried; I know the person who wields the knife on the fish counter!

@Lynne.thanks lynne. i havnt noticed it before. i must be going blind.

KENNY, those figures are misleadingly negative. Have you seen the definition of AWOL used for the purposes of these figures?  Most are due to patients being late for appointments!  Let's not start a witch hunt. STEPHEN, the hospital opened 80 years ago. 💊

According to the FOI request that I believe Kenny has got the figures from the figures are based on:

"....................all incidents reported where a person is absent without leave (AWOL).   This includes all incidents where a person left a unit without authorisation, irrespective of whether they left the hospital grounds, and all incidents where a person did not return from authorised leave within the time period set.".

Where's the being late for appointments bit?

When it opened 80 years ago what type of hospital was it? I'm curious as I can't seem to find any info online.  

Regardless of if the figures are misleading or not, the fact that Langdon is not a Hospital but a prision is not.

What is misleading are the cover ups from NHS managers responsible for the place, and the fact that dangerous convicted criminals are being allowed out into the community either on their own or with totally unsuitable escorts.

A more interesting freedom of information request would be how many working days have been lost due to assaults on staff by inmates.

The place needs to be taken out of NHS control and placed under the prision service rules with heightened security and less benifits for the inmates.

If anyone one seriously believes people like Shane Jenkins have human rights and need to be in the relative holiday camp environment offered at Langdon, then perhaps they to should be in there.

Parts of Langdon Hospital are secure - other parts are not.

I'm fortunate not to have a family that have suffered mental illness - I hope to god that you have too because they're not going to get much sympathy from you lot!

There are many people locally who have spent time in Langdon who are now living in the community with no adverse effects. We had a lovely lady who was confined there for nothing more than 'learning difficulties' who ended up with us and was a model tenant; helping others who, through physical disablement, benfited from her assistance. RIP Val.

Langdon Hospital has been there longer than most of us have been born. Indeed, in WW2 a B17 Flying Fortress crash landed there after a mission. It was repaired, a temporary runway was built and it took off to land at it's base to return to duty.

I like to think of that as a synonym for people there. They crash land; are repaired and take off again! Some don't....that's the secure unit.

I think it is the secure unit and the reasons its patients are there that causes concern. And haven't all the patients there, whatever units they are in, ended up there via the courts? So not quite your run of the mill psychiatric hospital is it?

As it happens I totally agree with you Huw about people who have had mental health problems, needing to be treated to get better and then going back to live in the community etc. Back in the 1980s I worked in a hostel where people lived having been released from a local psychiatric hospital. Remember Care in the Community? Supported housing and all that.

But there are mental health problems and mental health problems. 

Someone who believes herself to be descended from the russian imperial family and demands that she be addressed as Your Imperial Highness (I've not made that up by the way - she really did exist - again back in the 1980s)) can live in the community perfectly happily if not somewhat eccentrically. Someone with mental health problems whose mental health problems have manifested themselves in a more sinister form is another matter entirely.

Am I being naive in assuming it's people such as Her Imperial Highness and Val who make the escorted trips out and occasionally go AWOL, not the high secure ones?

Who's Val?

@Lynne She's mentioned in HuwMatthews' post

So she is. Sorry, that bit of his post didn't register for some reason.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/DEVON/2007-08/1186148544

Why were there so many mental hospitals nearby?

I don't think it's unusual, it's how things were in those days, you'd get put away for depression, learning difficulties, the slightest eccentricity etc. It's tragic to think of the poor souls who were unnecessarily institutionalised. 

Channel 4, Bedlam - http://www.channel4.com/programmes/bedlam/episode-guide

A very interesting documentary, during last night's episode (episode 2) one of the experts said that the modern drugs keep most patients calm. Which implies many thousands of people would be held in mental health hospitals if it wasn't for the modern drugs.

@Mcjrpc, you are spot on!

@Paul. if you watched who do you think you are recently, you would have seen that a number of people with ptsd from wwi were kept in "mental institutions" eg seale hayne, exminster.  my father worked at langdon in the 70s and one of the 'patients' at that time had been put there as a youngster as his mum was a single mother.  he became institutionalised and was eventually released into 'care in the community' in the 80s.  he's had a good life since but arguably could have had a better one.

Langdon has been there since I can remember. The Butler Clinic was where all the 'dangerous' patients were kept, I'm not sure what the situation is now which part is which.  This is where I think most of the issues are and where most of the public concern is directed. It doesn't help when people abscond seemingly on a regular basis.  It brings extremely bad press, for example, the poor nurse who took the patient out who escaped at Sainsburys and was injured.