What happened
Documents leaked to the Guardian in 2013 showed that five teenage prisoners at Hindley young offender institution near Wigan suffered broken bones while being restrained, in incidents between 2009 and 2011. It was the largest youth prison in the country, holding more than 400 male inmates, most of them children.
In one case handcuffs were placed on a boy even though a nurse had written on his medical notes that officers should not restrain his left wrist because of a “possible fracture”. In another, a 16-year-old who had refused to go to his room was held face down in a back hammer wrist lock, with his arms twisted up behind him. Some accounts say he was kept in that position after his wrist broke.
The outcome
Two investigations into the force used on the 16-year-old were carried out and never published. The prisons and probation ombudsman found the force “not reasonable, necessary or proportionate”.
The same investigation found that an officer at the prison had been the subject of 15 complaints of inappropriate behaviour towards inmates between September 2010 and May 2012, including two incidents in which wrists were broken. None of the complaints was upheld and no further action was thought necessary.
No prosecution, inquest or civil claim is recorded.
What went wrong
The camera is the centre of this case. Two officers said the boy had grabbed a broom handle and threatened them with it. The ombudsman’s report says the recording clearly shows he “put his hand on the broom handle for a fraction of a second and almost immediately took his hand away from it”. The restraint was applied on an account the footage did not support, and what exposed it was CCTV rather than a supervisor.
The nurse’s note about the left wrist was written and then overridden. The complaints history was a pattern the complaints system never surfaced. Fifteen complaints about one officer, two broken wrists among them, and not one upheld, is not a record of fifteen unfounded allegations. It is a record of a system that could not find anything.
What it teaches
A back hammer wrist lock is a fracture mechanism when it is applied to a child. Arms twisted up behind a prone body, with weight on the back, restrict breathing as well as break wrists. The technique was not the only failure. The check on it was.
Train the check rather than the hold. Who reviews the footage, who reads the medical note before the cuffs go on that wrist, and what makes an officer’s account of a restraint testable.
A camera and a nurse’s note were the only things that produced a finding here, and both were overridden.
Questions for the room
- A nurse wrote that the left wrist might be fractured. What has to happen before handcuffs go on that wrist?
- You are holding a 16-year-old face down. He says his wrist has gone. What do you do in the next ten seconds?
- Fifteen complaints, two broken wrists, none upheld. What does that tell you about the complaints route as a safety system?
- The footage contradicted the officers’ account. Who in your service is expected to watch it, and when?
Evidence and limits
Confidence: probable. There is one source, a Guardian investigation based on leaked documents. The ombudsman reports were produced but not published, and could not be opened, so the findings quoted here come through the press account.
No proceedings followed. The only process was an unpublished ombudsman complaint investigation, which did not uphold the complaints and took no further action, so nothing is outstanding on this case.
No prisoner is named; all were children.
Our physical interventions training covers positional risk in young people, and the checks that have to sit around any hold.
Sources
Reviewed 20 October 2026.