Pubdate: Sun, 31 October 1999 Source: Sunday Times (UK) Copyright: 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd. Contact: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/ Author: Rajeev Syal DRUGS FIND TO FUEL RENEWED CALLS FOR ASHWORTH CLOSURE EVIDENCE of heroin abuse has been discovered at Ashworth hospital, where Moors murderer Ian Brady is held. Burnt tinfoil containing traces of the drug was found two weeks ago in the hospital grounds. The discovery will fuel calls for the closure of the Merseyside hospital. Ashworth - one of three secure hospitals for dangerous long-term psychiatric patients - has twice been recommended for closure by government reports. Frank Dobson, Secretary of State for Health, announced a pounds 5.7 million security plan in May to eliminate criminal activity at the hospital. He was responding to the Fallon report, published in January, which found that pornography was freely available in Ashworth's personality-disorder unit, where sex offenders played unsupervised with an eight-year-old girl. Mr Dobson rejected calls for closure and gave managers four months to get their house in order. However, inquiries by The Telegraph have discovered that staff believe security is still failing. The foil with heroin traces was found by sniffer dogs inside the secure compound. An investigation has been launched to find out who brought it into the grounds. Two hospital nurses claimed this week that patients are allowed to move freely around the grounds and that they still have easy access to pornography. One said: "Everyone here knows it goes on, but lets it continue without blinking an eyelid. Its an unwritten rule that it will take too much time and will upset too many patients if we search them all." Bill Cassidy, a former member of the hospital's security staff, said that staff are constantly being frisked, while Ian Brady is allowed to move from one site to another without being searched. Brady, 61, whose accomplice was Myra Hindley, was jailed in 1966 for the murder of five children. Yesterday, he was force-fed him by the hospital in an attempt to end a month-long hunger strike in protest at an alleged assault by nurses. Mr Cassidy, 34, said he helped find an escape kit smuggled into the grounds by a patient. Staff representatives admitted last week there have been recent lapses in security and called for a fresh inquiry. Stuart Eales, the Prison Officers' Association secretary at Ashworth, said: "The searches are cursory and ineffective. The security mechanisms are not thorough and should be examined again." A hospital spokesman admitted that evidence of heroin had been found in the hospital grounds. She said that security around Ian Brady has been stepped up since the alleged incident witnessed by Mr Cassidy. She added that Mr Cassidy was dismissed from the hospital staff. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea