Former Mental Health Patient Denounces Psychiatric Unit Predator Who Abused Her As A Child | UK News

A former mental health patient, who was treated and sexually assaulted by a predator who worked in the psychiatric unit where she was being treated, says she has been repeatedly abandoned by the system.

Nima Hunt has waived her right to anonymity to speak out for the first time about the sexual abuse she suffered when she was vulnerable at 16.

While in the unit, Ms Hunt told a staff member what was going on, but no action was taken.

Warnings had already been issued about her attacker Marcus Daniell, but Ms Hunt was never made aware of them. And when the abuse finally came to light, Ms Hunt was sent back to the same unit for further treatment.

It is a catalog of serious failures that left a vulnerable child with mental health issues alone, frightened and exposed.

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told Sky News that Ms Hunt’s case had “brought to light some deep shortcomings in the mental health services we give to children and young people.”

Ms Hunt was admitted to Watcombe Hall – a private residential psychiatric unit, paid for and commissioned by the NHS – at the age of 16, after struggling with mental health at the age of 13.

A few days after arriving at the unit, she was targeted and treated by Daniell.

She told Sky News: “I remember him giving me a lot of special treatments so that I could spend more time with me than the other patients there when he was on duty.

“If I was on a one-to-one stand, so I needed someone with me all the time, then it would often be my face-to-face. He would find a way to change or adapt the existing staff. to spend more time with me. “

Daniell convinced Ms.