Exposed: Inmate sexual abuse at Accra Psychiatric Hospital

Instances of violent sexual conduct amongst inmates are being reported by whistleblowers inside the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.

Many of the assaults are same sex in nature and the alleged victims are the facility’s most vulnerable patients. Thus far, workers are unable to provide them sufficient protection and seem more concerned with keeping the story out of public view.

“As for same sex relationships inside the hospital wards, it has been going on all along. It is not new,” one junior staff member said.

Sources say, officials of the overcrowded and profoundly under-resourced facility have turned a blind eye to the attacks and the most infirm patients are easy targets for sexually aggressive mentally challenged at the city’s only mental health care facility.

Inside sources say the situation is dangerous and deteriorating and the victimisation of one under-aged patient compelled them to take their complaint public.

The underage girl was admitted into the facility for a severe mental disorder with the hope that doctors will heal her and send her back to her parents. But, since setting her foot in the facility, her troubles have increased.

The quiet and timid patient has become a sex toy of some kind for one of the aggressive mentally challenged inmates notorious for seizing other patients and forcing them into sexual acts of all kinds.

One senior staff told The Globe newspaper, “This woman has become young girl’s (name withheld) worse nightmare. Every now and then she will force this young girl into doing supi (the local term for lesbianism). We have reported her violent conduct to our superiors many times but nothing has come out of those reports.”

“She has been caught several times inserting her fingers into her private parts. But till today, no action and I mean no action has been taken to protect the victim,” another source, who frequently visits the facility reports.

“The nurses talk about it among themselves every now and then but nobody in authority simply cares,” one other source said. “It is as if those mental patients who are being abused sexually all the time have no rights.”

Nurses who work in the facility have confirmed to The Globe newspaper that they are aware of “lesbianism in particular within Female Ward 1” but are too powerless to end the trend.

When The Globe visited the facility under cover recently, this reporter heard nurses discuss the fate of the young girl whose private parts are under constant attack from more aggressive patients.

Our reporter overheard one of the nurses threatening to “beat the hell out of (name omitted)” if she fails to report future abuses she suffered at the hands of mentally challenged lesbians in the facility.

“Please tell the story of (name omitted) to the world, because personally I don’t think she can report anything given the fact that she is obviously very sick mentally,” one worried source told The Globe.

One other informant said, “This canker of homosexuality has crept deep into the facility on a shocking scale, but our big men are more worried about keeping the news out of the headlines than take steps to save inmates who are being violated daily.”

As at the time of going to press, the Medical Director at the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Akwesi Osei, was not available for comment. Officials of both the Hospital’s Administration and the local office of the Social Welfare Department within the facility will also not comment.

The National Director of the Department of Social Welfare, Mr Steven Adongo, denied knowledge of reports of same sex relationship among inmates of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital.

“I have not received any such report. If such a thing is happening, I am not aware,” he said in a phone interview.**