Three men sentenced following BBC documentary about abuse at Merseyside special educational needs school

Head of Leigh Day’s abuse team, Alison Millar, has welcomed the prosecutions, but believes the lenient sentences handed down raise serious questions.

In 2024, a BBC Panorama investigation into Merseyside special educational needs school, LIFE, uncovered how children with complex needs were placed in headlocks, wrestled to the ground by staff, and called ‘retards’.

An undercover reporter from Panorama was employed as a staff member at the school for around seven weeks from March to May 2024, and the documentary, televised in June 2024, triggered a police investigation where three men were arrested and charged.

Oliver Nugent, 27, from Irby, pleaded guilty on 29 April 2025 to assault was sentenced to 12 weeks' imprisonment, suspended for 12 months.  

Elliot Millar, 22, from Liscard, Wallasey, pleaded guilty on 18 November 2024 to five charges, including two charges of common assault, two charges of assault by beating and a charge of using threatening words, likely to cause alarm or distress, and was jailed for 12 weeks.

Daniel McNulty-Doyle, 22, from Little Neston, Cheshire, was employed as a wellbeing coach at the school and had worked there since October 2022. He was found guilty of using threatening, abusive behaviour, likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. He was convicted after a full trial on 27 March 2025 and was fined £250, with £50 compensation to the victim.

The BBC reported that the defendants all claimed to have had a lack of training for their roles and claimed much of their alleged threatening behaviour was "banter".

Head of Leigh Day’s abuse team, Allison Millar, said: 

“Whilst I am glad to see there have been criminal prosecutions in this appalling case, people will understandably be questioning whether the sentences handed down reflect the severity of the crimes that have been committed against children with special educational needs and disabilities.

“When the perpetrators have completed the short sentences or paid the financial penalty, the pupils who were affected by their abuse may well still be struggling with its repercussions.

“People will also be questioning how this horrific and targeted abuse was only exposed by an undercover journalist rather than Ofsted – who rated the school ‘good’ just a year before the BBC investigation took place.  

“There are clear concerns about how LIFE was run and how it came to employ staff clearly unfit to work with disabled children.  

“This shocking case highlights wider structural issues concerning local authority oversight of education provision that is publicly funded through individual Education, Health and Care Plans, and the broader school inspection framework.”