A FORMER officer at Brook House detention centre said he decided to become a whistleblower after witnessing officers mocking a naked detainee who was in distress, an inquiry heard today.

Callum Tulley, who now works as a BBC reporter, started working at Brook House, then run by security firm G4S, as an assistant custody officer in 2015 when he was 18 years old. 

After hearing and witnessing several worrying incidents, he contacted BBC Panorama and then filmed the abuse secretly, he told the Brook House inquiry.

The inquiry is investigating abuse he documented at the site between April and August 2017. 

Giving evidence on Monday, Mr Tulley said one of the incidents took place when he was called to the cell of a detainee being held in solitary confinement who was refusing to leave the detention centre. 

When he arrived, he said the man was naked and five officers, including two managers, were “laughing at him, [and] making comments about his body.”

“He was clearly distressed and upset. It was shocking to see. 

“It’s seared into my memory, such a bleak and depressing situation. I still struggle to understand why they were doing what they were doing. He was a defenceless detainee.” 

In another incident, Mr Tulley said he heard a number of officers had been suspended because they had “stood outside the cell of  suicidal detainee who is under constant supervision, wearing George Michael masks, and danced outside the cell.”

Mr Tulley said the incident was never confirmed but he heard the same story repeated by other officers during his time at Brook House. 

Following the Panorama programme, 14 G4S guards resigned or were dismissed.