'I was given electric shocks to knock the homosexuality out of my brain'

ByHayley Hassall

BBC North West Investigations

More victims of controversial electric shock therapy used to try to change their sexuality have come forward to call on the government to investigate the historical "scandal".

They spoke out after the BBC revealed that more than 260 people had been subjected to the discredited treatment at NHS hospitals in the 1960s and 1970s.

The people, who are now in their 70s and 80s, said they had been left physically and emotionally traumatised by their experiences.

And while the government said it would be drafting legislation to ban "aversion therapy", ten months on, the people spoken to by the BBC said they were still yet to receive an apology for what they had endured.

The BBC's investigation uncovered evidence that LGBT+ patients were subjected to electric shock aversion therapy in NHS hospitals across England.

Patients were shown images associated with same-sex attraction while being given painful electric shocks in an attempt to change their sexuality.

Norman Goodman, 75, said that from childhood he felt more like a girl than a boy, and told his parents that he wanted to be female.

He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Manchester when he was 18, in the late 1960s.

He told the BBC doctors said they would try to make it easier for him, but he was given electric shocks.

"I didn't realise it was to knock the homosexuality out of my brain," he told the BBC.

He said he was strapped to a bed and electrodes were put on his arms, legs and on either side of his head, before electricity was passed through them.

" It was absolutely terrible. They started shocking me. I was really frightened.

"And next thing I knew, it was as though I didn't know where I was.

"I didn't even know who I was. I was very weak. I had no appetite and no energy. "

Norman said he remembered NHS staff trying to make him change his mannerisms, telling him to walk and behave in a more masculine way.

But the treatment did not change who he was.

Debbie Burley told the BBC her grandfather, Arthur James Emberton, also went through electric shock therapy.

She only found out about 20 years ago what he had been through, long after he had died.

He had been a respected businessman from Cheshire, running his own cheese company.

In 1965, aged 61, he appeared at Nantwich magistrates' court after being charged with indecent assault. He had been caught kissing a boy in a doorway.

The court heard he was given probation on the condition that he sought medical treatment.

Court documents show that treatment had already begun before he was sentenced.

According to Debbie, Arthur's wife divorced him, he was forced out of the family business - which was later sold - and spent much of the rest of his life living alone in YMCA accommodation.

While the documents do not indicate what treatment he received, family members later learned he had gone through electric shock aversion therapy.

Debbie said the consequences were catastrophic.

"He never rebuilt his life," she said. "He carried that shame for the rest of his life.

"As an adult, I now understand the enormous injustice done to him," she said.

"He was wronged by the state, the medical system and the attitudes of the time."

Another man who contacted the BBC said he was 16 when he realised he was attracted to men.

"I thought I was the only one in the world," said the man, who asked to remain anonymous because, even though he is in his late 80s, he has never told his family that he is gay.

He said his parents took him to a doctor, who prescribed testosterone tablets.

But, he said, the medication made him aggressive and unwell.

So he was referred for electric shock treatment at a mental health unit.

The treatment took place once a week for about two years.

"The shock treatment itself was terrible," he said. "And after the shocks, I was like a zombie.

"I'd be going to sleep at all times of the day at home and I'd wake up crying."

Doctors told him the treatment would "straighten him out".

But, he said, it did not change the way he felt.

He said the treatment had "broken him".

"I'm still broken now," he said.

Most of the people who had electric shock aversion therapy were men.

But records show some women and, in some cases, children were also subjected to the treatment.

People were referred by their families, schools, churches, or the courts.

Hel Spandler, Prof of Mental health studies at the University of Lancashire, said the figure of 260 was likely to be far lower than the true number.

"Sadly, I think this figure is quite conservative and it's likely that considerably more LGBT people were affected," they said.

"We need to remember that, at the time, being gay or trans was considered a mental disorder, and this type of aversion therapy was one of many so-called therapies used to try and 'treat' it.

"While it was probably the most controversial method, for over a decade it was an accepted practice in the NHS.

"Indeed NHS hospitals in every major city in England had aversion therapy suites precisely for this purpose."

Professor Spandler said there was evidence the practice was also exported to other countries, and that hundreds more people may have undergone the treatment.

Many of those affected are now elderly, and some have spent decades carrying the trauma in silence.

They are calling not only for a full investigation into historic conversion practices, but also for accountability and a comprehensive ban on all forms of conversion therapy.

But a bill currently working its way through Parliament, the draft Conversion Practices Bill, has met with opposition from some religious groups.

The Bishop of Leicester raised in the House of Lords his concern "about the lack of clarity on the difference between harmful conversion practices and perfectly acceptable practices of pastoral care and indeed prayer".

Norman told the BBC he wanted the government to apologise for what people like him had been put through.

"I would like to see them on the television talking about what had happened to people like me. Yes, to apologize.

"I would like them to look at records from years ago, and I would like it to become more in the media so today's young people can see what happened and today's medics can learn from what had happened."

The Draft Conversion Practices Bill defines conversion practice as anything carried out with the intention of making people change, or believe that they have changed, their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The government said it "thanked everyone who has courageously come forward to share their experiences of these abhorrent historical practices".

It added: "We remain determined to ensure full transparency over the past use of electric shock aversion therapy in NHS settings.

"In the meantime, we are also taking action through our draft legislation published in June to ensure that all so-called conversion practices are banned for good."