Dad whose autistic daughter was "locked in a 12-foot hospital cell" beats his legal attempt to gag him

A father whose autistic daughter was "locked in a 12-foot hospital cell" won his legal battle against the local council that tried to gag him, according to reported information.

The 17-year-old girl was held in a psychiatric ward for 21 months after being detained under the Mental Health Act.

The autistic teenager, who is also suffering from extreme anxiety, was locked in a small room measuring 12 by 10 meters with just a mattress and chair costing the NHS £ 13,000 a week, according to her father.

He said that she had been nurtured by a trapdoor in the door of the psychiatric unit St Andrews Healthcare of Northampton, spending most of her time in isolation due to accidents. self-harm and assault, reported the Times.

And the treatment continued despite an assessment in June concluding that her care needs were not being met and that she should be transferred to a residential facility, it was said.

His father, Jeremy, whose last name can not be revealed for legal reasons, said he was forced to kneel in front of the room and talk to his daughter through the door.

Last week, he was brought to court after campaigning on social media for his daughter to be displaced.

The Walsall board had attempted to hit the truck driver with a gag order, preventing him from revealing certain details of his case.

But, with the help of the Mencap charity, the 50-year-old was detained by the High Court, demanding the withdrawal of the injunction, the newspaper reported.

The 50-year-old former teacher said, "The attempt to silence me has never been about caring for Bethany or protecting her rights.

"It was purely there to keep me from mentioning the failures of the local authorities, the NHS England and St Andrews Hospital."

Jeremy, of Birmingham, is now free to discuss the case but can not reveal his last name, while the council will have to pay the court fees, reported the Times.

Dan Scorer, policy officer at Mencap, said: "Local authorities have used taxpayer money to try to prevent it from publicly speaking about human rights violations."

The professionals have now agreed to transfer Bethany to a secure two-room unit.

Walsall's counsel told The Times that he did not wish a "narrower restriction on the publication of information such as these could or could be identified.

The authority stated that the details published by Bethany's father had identified it and that an agreement had now been reached to prevent this from happening.

According to the NHS figures obtained by The Times, 250 children with learning disabilities or autistic are held in such units, more than double the 110 inmates in March 2015.