VULNERABLE children in custody have been forcibly stripped and subjected to inappropriate pain-inducing restraints by staff, “deeply shocked” inspectors found.

A report by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, published today, found during two visits to Wetherby Young Offender Institution that all-male teams of officers were forcibly restraining girls to remove their clothing to prevent them from self-harming.

At the prison, which holds boys and girls as young as 15, 24 children had been strip-searched in the last 12 months, with 12 of those occurring under restraint.