Autistic adults deserve better than a miserable life in isolation

The lessons of care scandals such as Winterbourne View have been learned, insists former health minister Norman Lamb. But The Independent’s investigation into the treatment of people with learning difficulties proves our government is unconcerned that the barbarism persists

Nicholas Thornton, who is autistic, lives in a care facility, in a windowless room he is unable to leave (Emma Thompson)

The tragedy of Nicholas Thornton – an autistic young man whose “care” involves him being kept in isolation in a windowless room for 24 hours a day, as has been revealed by The Independent this week – ought to be an exception. Unfortunately, it is all too common in a care system that too often totally fails to treat vulnerable people with dignity and humanity.

We should be shocked to read the way Nicholas has been shunted from pillar to post and locked up in institutions where a cruel and barbaric culture prevailed. But his story feels all too familiar.

It is a deeply troubling mark of our society that we continue to tolerate this, especially after all of the public scandals – most notably, the disgusting abuse by staff of people with learning disabilities and autism at the Winterbourne View hospital near Bristol, which was exposed by an undercover investigation in 2011.