Locked up against her will: meet Megan, forcibly detained in a learning disabled facility

Content warning: this article contains descriptions of physical and emotional abuse that some readers may find upsetting.

With the police’s announcement that there is a “national emergency” over a rise in violent crime against women and girls – with a record number of nearly 3,000 crimes reported daily – you would automatically assume that this crime is happening on the streets. Or maybe you would think that these crimes are happening in poorer areas of the country – you know, the really run down places that you wouldn’t want to be in on a cold, dark night.

But what if I told you that this is happening to women and girls in loving, well-cared-for homes with the crimes being carried out by medical professionals and social services? Because it is.

It is happening right now, as I type, to Megan Docherty.

On Tuesday 23 July a protest took place to raise awareness of an 18 year-old woman called Megan Docherty who is allegedly being mistreated, physically and verbally abused, and held against her will in an NHS facility after being violently taken from her home:

But this wasn’t by criminal thugs or gang members – well, not officially anyway.

This was by the police, social services, and medical professionals.

Megan Docherty’s voice

Megan is a Scottish and English national disabled gymnast and athlete:

She lives in Scotland with her mother Shona McIntyre who is also her legal guardian:

Megan is autistic, lives with ADHD, joint hypermobility, and is learning disabled. However, at the end of 2023 she developed avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID).

Megan’s ARFID was triggered after an incident at her gym. For the last seven months she has begun losing weight – although she was eating three meals a day with snacks. As a concerned mother would, Shona took her daughter to see a dietitian who simply offered Megan “health shakes”.

When the shakes arrived, Megan – noticing the difference in packaging and texture – refused to take them. Living with ARFID, she would only take her usual protein drinks. This was a clear sign of the illness that medical professionals completely disregarded.

Megan continued to lose weight, with medical professionals and authorities accusing Shona of “not cooperating” and “not trying different things”.

With Megan now losing 2kg every two weeks and with no offer of a home IV drip, Shona asked her GP if Megan could be given nasogastric (NG) tube feeding at home. Shona believed this would be a solution to her daughter’s serious weight loss due to the ARFID.

Sadly this was again refused. And the situation then got seriously worse.

Ripped from her home

After NHS staff previously tried but failed to section her, on Monday 15 July whilst Megan and Shona were at home, three police vans, a doctor, a social worker, and nurses arrived at their property. As Shona wrote on a petition for Megan:

They demanded to be let in or they would use force to break the door down.

I let them in as they had a warrant. They found my daughter hiding under the bed.

The fear in her eyes was awful, she ran and tried to get out the front door it was locked, down she ran into my bedroom in to the bathroom.

By this point I couldn’t count how many people where swarming our home. I asked them to back off from the bathroom as she was getting so distressed, they refused, so I attempted to close the door a bit more for her privacy.

The policeman was in the way, in my distress I hadn’t realised, he grabbed me and pinned me on the bed and put handcuffs on me, they held my ankles and pushed my face into the bed and told me I had assaulted an officer. My neighbour was here so witnessed it all and said I most definitely didn’t assault anyone.

Then the screaming began. Screams that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

Taken from her life

As Shona was being handcuffed and held down by cops:

Four police officers dragged [Megan] out of bathroom… she was trying to grab onto anything, I couldn’t see properly as they kept pressing my head into bed.

When she saw me she yelled let go of her, Megan doesn’t speak much so this shows level of distress too. I didn’t see what happened after as they tore my vulnerable girl away from her safe space. My neighbour said she’s glad I didn’t see.

They took her to an unknown place and for hours no one knew where she was. Eventually we were told. She had been taken to a locked adult Learning Disability Psych ward. I asked to see her they refused saying she was too distressed. I said I hope you haven’t pinned her and drugged her, they said they hadn’t.

I called in the morning they said she had slept well….the reason for that was they had drugged her and pinned her without telling me so she was totally sedated so no wonder she slept!

When Shona was finally told where her daughter was being held she was informed that she “will be safer at a hospital – not in the community”.

The William Fraser Centre – accused of mistreatment

Megan had been taken to the William Fraser Centre at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, which is a unit for the provision of psychiatric care and treatment for learning disabled people. Clearly not a medical ward, Shona goes on to describe the horrors that she then found her daughter in:

I visited the next morning at 10am, I was asked to leave at 11am after no explanation or answers to any of my questions were given! Megan clung to me and for the next two hours they tried to prise her arm and hands off me using force and restraint but she didn’t let go she held on through the pain.

This went on for almost two and half hours.

She had told me they lay on the back of her knees crushing them into the floor and she could hardly walk when she got up. She has hypermobility and is recovering from an knee injury.

Shona has not been accused of neglect and is Megan’s legal guardian. Yet she has not received any paperwork, documents, or emails over the decision to remove Megan from her care.

Whilst Megan has been under the care of the William Fraser Clinic she has continued to lose weight – 2kgs in just five days. Staff have allegedly forcibly manhandled and physically assaulted her, and even called her a “spoiled brat”.

The hospital has also decided that Shona is not allowed on the premises to even see Megan. All of this has led Shona to having to set up a petition for legal support.

Time to protest for Megan Docherty

Crucially, with a lack of ARFID specialists to help Shona managed to get in touch with an organisation called Autistic Inclusive Meets UK. Its CEO, activist and author Emma Dalmayne, told the Canary:

When we heard about the unconscionable abuse Megan is suffering at the hands of mental health staff in The William Frasier Centre Centre, we knew we had to act; and act quickly. The staff responsible should be charged with assault.

Megan should not be there, she is not mentally ill. Tragically, we have see many cases of autistic people being taken by force and placed into unsuitable settings, this won’t be the last person repeatedly assaulted and discriminated against. More education is desperately needed.

So, along with Shona, friends, and allies they took direct action outside of the facility holding Megan. Using #MegansVoice and #FreeMegan they desperately tried to raise awareness of Megan’s situation:

As Shona told the Canary:

My beautiful and vulnerable daughter is dying

As the protest from 11am-3pm continued outside of the William Fraser Centre the Canary was given footage showing Megan trying to hold Shona’s hand through the window of the facility and desperately seen trying to give “safe” food to her:

The upsetting footage also shows Megan explaining that staff are hurting her, and that she just wants to go home with her mum:

The Canary contacted NHS Lothian, which runs the William Fraser Centre, for comment but it had not responded at the time of publication.

Violence against women and girls: a systemic emergency – in the system

Shona will continue to protest in the hope of getting the right support for Megan – and to make sure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Yet we are as chronically ill and disabled people constantly left in this position.

From people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) to people living with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), from #MaeveInquiry to #SaveCarlasLife and #BringMillieHome, there is a clear, systemic issue that needs to be addressed here.

Why are so many of these women’s medical needs dismissed, leaving them at risk of violence against them?

Just why are so many mothers disbelieved and not taken seriously when they know their child better than anyone else?

And why are so many women’s serious conditions completely disregarded by our NHS – from ARFID to instabilities of the neck like craniocervical and atlantoaxial?

And why does it seem that this mentality is spreading within our society and also within practiced medicine?

What more can chronically ill and disabled people do? What more can Shona do?

We have protested, we have blocked roads, we have made documentaries, and we have gone to parliament. Shona and so many of us are shouting as loud as we can. Yet still, no one seems to hear us.

You can sign the petition in support of Megan here. 

Featured image and additional images and videos supplied