Letter: How 'village' life helps mentally handicapped

Sir: Your reports of abuses of 'mentally handicapped' adults in a privately owned home in Buckinghamshire doubtless fill many readers with a sense of revulsion and shock.

The cases highlight the vulnerability of people with learning disabilities, and the extreme difficulties they face in having such crimes recognised and taken seriously.

The increase in privately run provision for these people demands high levels of confidence that local authority registration and monitoring procedures are sufficiently searching to take account of their vulnerability. The interests of these people must be paramount. In practice, the neglect of their entitlement to personal security and human dignity amounts to negation of their basic human rights.

Yours sincerely,

DORA RICKFORD, Chairman; STEPHEN MORRIS, Director; TAMSIN COTTIS

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London, SW18