Netherlands outraged over treatment of mentally ill teenager

Jan 19, 2011, 19:37 GMT

Amsterdam - The fate of a mentally ill teenager who was tied up for three years in solitary confinement has angered many in the Netherlands and led to calls for an emergency debate in parliament on Wednesday.

The front page of the de Volkskrant newspaper had a photograph of 18-year-old Brandon, wearing a harness and tied by a 1.5-metre-long strap to a steel bracket on a wall. He's a patient at a psychiatric care home in Ermelo, about 70 kilometres east of Amsterdam.

'For three years my son has lived like an animal in a cage,' said his mother Petra van Ingen. She also said that he hadn't been outside in two-and-a-half years and didn't have any contact with other young people.

The shocking photographs in the newspaper were from a documentary that aired on Dutch public television NOS on Tuesday, based on footage secretly filmed by the boy's mother.

The care home has said that it has no alternative, as Brandon has 'exceptionally complex problems, which require structural restraint.' This was backed up by health inspectors who visited the home on Tuesday, who said that Brandon 'has to be limited in his freedom permanently for his own safety and the safety of others.'