Brook House: Officers 'smuggled drugs to detainees', inquiry hears

Custody officers at an immigration removal centre smuggled in drugs for detainees to sell, an inquiry heard.

The ongoing inquiry into Brook House removal centre, near Gatwick Airport, is examining the mistreatment of detainees, as well as the attitudes and culture of staff.

It follows a series of investigations triggered by BBC Panorama in 2017.

In a statement a detainee claimed his cellmate was earning up to £400 a day supplying others in the centre.

Parcels of contraband would be prepared outside to be brought in by custody officers working for G4S, which ran Brook House at the time, it was claimed.

The inquiry heard one officer, described as "totally corrupt", was smuggling in the packages before handing them over to detainees.

The inquiry is currently considering the alleged failures of Brook House to deal with the mental health problems of people being held.

The drugs claims were made in the statement, read to the inquiry, of a man who arrived in the UK from Somalia in 1994.

After he admitted a series of criminal offences, and served time in prison, he was taken to Brook House to await deportation.

The detainee, codenamed D687, gave evidence to the inquiry of the centre's failure to manage his diagnosed PTSD and depression.

He also said that another man being held at Brook House was obtaining drugs.

In his statement he said: "I asked how he was bringing drugs in. He told me he had an officer doing that bit for him."

D687 asked which officer, and said he was pointed to a custody officer he knew by the nickname "Ginge".

He told the inquiry he had since identified the officer as Luke Instone-Brewer.

"My cellmate was also selling drugs at Brook House and separately told me that Ginge was bringing it in," D687 said.

The inquiry heard that packages of contraband, which also contained weapons, were prepared outside the centre.

Detainees would arrange for a delivery fee of £500 per package to be paid into a bank account, plus a few pennies to identify the transaction, the inquiry heard.

Inside Brook House a detainee would take delivery, confirming exactly how much had been paid.

D687 said parcels would be sold on to his cellmate, who would then split it up and supply other detainees by slipping bags of drugs under cell doors, charging £25 per delivery.

Cannabis and spice use remains rife at Brook House according to detainees who spoke to the BBC from inside the facility last year.

G4S handed over the operation of Brook House to Serco in 2020.

D687 told the inquiry in his statement that using drugs made his mental health issues worse, and in 2017 he tried to hang himself.

The aftermath of this suicide attempt was captured by secret cameras smuggled into Brook House by the BBC Panorama reporter Callum Tulley, who was working as a custody officer. The resulting documentary led to the current public inquiry.

Panorama filmed 109 hours of footage and captured many incidents in which detainees were suffering the effects of spice.

D687 said in his statement that during his time at Brook House: "I was treated like an animal, something less than human.

"It has left an impact on me and my mental health which I don't think I'll ever get over.

"When I entered Brook House I felt relatively normal. When I left I felt broken, hopeless and mad."

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