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think- ago

And her account, disbelieved by so many for so long, yesterday gained credence when the long-awaited police report into his behaviour was released. Her account was mirrored by 142 other witness statements, all making similar claims.

'Dr Milner played with our bodies and our minds,' she says. 'This is the validation that we were telling the truth. When you take account of how long he was there for, he abused thousands of people.

For eight months in 1971, Barbara – a troubled child whose traveller mother had abandoned her, and whose father willingly handed her over to care system when he failed to cope – was a patient in the Laburnum Ward at Aston Hall in Derbyshire, a psychiatric hospital.

Dr Milner was Aston Hall's chief physician from 1947 to 1975. He died in 1976, decades before the first lurid accusations about the place emerged.

What went on at Aston Hospital during the 50s, 60s and 70s has long been a matter of speculation. Murmurings about sinister goings-on started to be heard several years ago, and the local paper in Derbyshire first reported the incredible claims.

Dr Milner played with our bodies and our minds. This is the validation that we were telling the truth

Questions were eventually asked in Parliament, and then prime minister David Cameron agreed that there must be an investigation.

It was Barbara who started the ball rolling.

'People thought I was nuts,' she reveals. 'My solicitor has since told me that at first he thought I was a crank. The minute you say 'mental institution', people do.

'That's how Dr Milner got away with it for so long. He used to use the phrase 'mental defectives' to describe us, as a cover for his evil.

'The truth is we were human toys. We were a piece of meat for someone to play with, behind closed doors. And this man – this monster – was supposed to be protecting us.'

Barbara's isn't a sole voice. As soon as she started tentatively speaking out, she was approached by other former patients of Aston Hall. She still believes many more victims could come forward.

'I think what we are talking about here is the tip of the iceberg. We are not talking a handful of cases, we are talking systematic abuse in the 50s, 60s, 70s. We are potentially talking of hundreds of children, being drugged without consent and abused.'