ultimately, these settings should not exist. it s just appalling. the people are not criminals. they have not got sentences through the criminaljustice process. they are stuck in services just as people used to be stuck in long stay institutions. nhs england told us they are continuing to work to find the highly specialised support required. the judge has ordered authorities finally find a plan to bring him back to brighton by may next year. tony s wait continues. when we visited tone, when we re leaving, he pushes his face up to the window and watches us till we disappear. i can t look back. what have they done to all of us as a family? they ve destroyed us. oh, dear. jayne mccubbin, bbc news. a review of the way football is governed in england has concluded that an independent regulator
ou. a man with autism and learning disabilities has been held in a secure unit for 21 years because of a lack of support in the community. a seniorjudge has criticised the authorities for outrageous delays in handling the case. bbc news has now succeeded in getting a court order lifted, allowing us to name tony hickmott, who s 44. his case is by no means an exception. the latest figures show there are more than 2,000 patients with learning disabilities or autism in similar situations across england. bbc news has learned that at least 100 of them have been held in secure settings for more than 20 years. 0ur correspondentjayne mccubbin has been to meet tony hickmott s parents, who ve taken their fight to the court of protection to get their son back. nine months. to be away for nine months until he found them a suitable place in the brighton area. that s what we was told. but it s far from the truth.
there, a judge said the delays facing tony have been egregious, but the progress made to date has been glacial. the judges told them to get on with it, right, we ve only got this limited time. they re still not doing it. we re still fighting over money. the seniorjudge took the unusual step of lifting the anonymity order because she said she had no doubt tony s case was in the public interest and it was clear that a lack of resources had left him detained for so long. tony s care right now is funded by the nhs, but ongoing support in the community will have to be paid for by his council, who told us. they re working with the nhs and tony s family to find other options. it s a decade since bbc cameras captured the neglect and abuse of people with learning disabilities in winterbourne view. that prompted the government to set targets to move people into real homes with appropriate support, but those targets have been missed repeatedly.
winterbourne view. that prompted the government to set targets to move people into real homes with appropriate support, but those targets have been missed repeatedly. nhs england has yet to respond. ultimately these settings should not exist. - it sjust appalling. the people are not criminals. they have not got - sentences through the criminaljustice process. they are stuck in - servicesjust as people used to be stuck in long stay institutions. - the judge has ordered authorities to finally find a plan to bring him back to brighton by may next year. tony s wait continues. we visited tone, we re leaving and he pushes his face in the window and watches us disappear. i cannot look back. what have they done to all of us? the family? they destroyed us. oh, dear. jayne mccubbin, bbc news. our main story this evening.
onjune 29th, 2001, pam and roy s son tony was detained under the mental health act. like many young people with autism and a learning disability, he d struggled to cope as he became an adult. i love you. i love you, too, tony. he s now lived in an atu an assessment and treatment unit for almost 21 years, 100 miles from his family. the bbc has had to go to court to tell you tony s story. his family have had to go to court to try and bring him back to brighton. one week runs into a month, a month runs into a year. then that year went, then another year went. we d travel back sometimes and we d pull in and we d both sit down and cry. i mean, i come home and i ve got pam, she s got me. he s got nobody. atus are designed for short term stays in a crisis. the problem here is not tony, but the system. psychiatrists have said he s been fit for discharge since 2013. this month, the family went to the court of protection to try and break the deadlock.