From ‘Tortured by the State’
It will come as a shock to many, including to those inside the police and security services, that sleep deprivation is used as a tactic. It certainly came as a shock to me.
Torture methods vary. They can be of a physical nature… Or they can be of a psychological nature, like sleep deprivation…
Amnesty International
So abhorrent is the practice of sleep deprivation that it is classified as a form of torture. For someone to have their cognitive functioning seriously impaired, over a period of time, not only leads to psychological distress, but also manifests in physical illness
It is debatable whether those police officers who partook in this form of torture are aware of this fact. Even so, the fact remains that they were well aware that what they have been doing is illegal.
The practice of sleep deprivation began in earnest in early 2018 and continued through until the present time (2021). A number of methods have been used: helicopters, sirens, shouting, swearing, screaming, using the police dog, alarms, etc. At its worst, the sleep deprivation occurred when my sister passed away. After this, I was being woken up multiple times every night. Yet, somehow, I managed to continue working, teaching and writing.
Who authorised this tactic? How widely used is sleep deprivation by the Metropolitan police? Is it employed by police services other than The Metropolitan Police? How long has it been used for? Moreover, what did these officers hope to achieve by using this? What, exactly, is the goal of torture? After all, torture is often employed to extract information, but that evidently was not the case here, so what were their aims? What, exactly, were they trying to achieve? What was the decision-making / thought process that led to the use of such a sickening and barbaric tactic? There are many questions to be answered, which only those who orchestrated such a tactic can answer.
The following are some of the different methods they have used to wake me: Helicopters… Sirens… Shouting… Screaming… Laughing… Alarms…