A blind teenager has said he was left “horrified and embarrassed” after being refused entry to a sandwich shop because he was accompanied by his guide dog, Pilot.

Robbie Lee, 19, said he tried to order food at the Subway sandwich shop on Vicar Lane in Leeds when a manager told him to “get out with the dog”.

Under the 2010 Equality Act it is illegal to refuse access to a disabled person with their guide dog, except in exceptional circumstances.

Mr Lee said Subway had since apologised to him and, in an email, a spokesperson told him that staff at the branch were being retrained.

Mr Lee said the incident happened in October when he took a lunch break from Leeds City College where he is studying backstage theatre.

“I walked across to grab a sandwich, but as soon as I got in the shop he came over and said I couldn’t be inside with my dog,” he said.

Mr Lee said he asked to see the manager and it emerged the staff member he was talking to was, in fact, in charge of the shop.

“I told him it was a service dog. I even brought up the legislation on my phone, but he didn’t care,” Mr Lee said.

Mr Lee’s father, Kev, said after the incident he had lodged a formal complaint to Subway, adding he was angry his son’s independence was taken away from him.

“He was forced to wait outside for his food, and this sort of thing happens to blind people all the time,” he said.

“There’s even a sign on the door at Subway that says service dogs are allowed. Surely everyone knows guide dogs are allowed?”

Kev Lee said Subway had since apologised to his son via email, in which it was stated that staff would be retrained.

Both father and son were also offered a free “foot-long” sandwich when they next visited the store “as a gesture of goodwill”.

However, Kev Lee said the response did not go far enough.

“It’s insulting if they think discrimination against a disabled person is only as serious as offering a free sandwich.

“It’s just not good enough. This affects people’s mental health and makes them feel rejected in society.”

A study for the Guide Dogs charity in 2022, external found that 76% of guide dog owners had been refused access to a business or service, while about half (49%) said they had changed or restricted their plans because they were worried about being challenged or refused access.

Maqsood Sheikh, senior regional campaigns officer for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, said he was disappointed to hear about Mr Lee’s experience, but added that he was not surprised to hear about what had happened.

“We know three-quarters of all blind people are experiencing refusals, not just in fast-food restaurants, but in taxis, hotels, pubs – everywhere.

“It’s a widespread and growing problem because too many hospitality staff and retail staff still don’t understand the law.”

Robbie Lee, who can only sense light and shade since losing his sight as a toddler, said blind people deserved to be treated the same as everyone else.

“We are still human and we don’t want to be discriminated against.”

Kev Lee said: “To anyone else suffering discrimination because of disability you need to be strong about it: report it and raise awareness so businesses are forced to take action.”

Subway has not yet responded to a request from the BBC for a comment.

A disabled man has said he was “unfairly removed” from a music event in London, after venue staff mistook his medical condition for being drunk.

Matthew Parrott, 48, from Oxford took his wife, Beth, to London to watch Glass Animals at The O2 Arena on 7 November but missed the headline act when he was removed after suffering a fall.

He told BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme that their evidence for him being intoxicated was that he was “stumbling when he walked”.

The O2 apologised and said it was reviewing staff training.

Mr Parrott has had lymphoma, a type of blood cancer which impacts the immune system, since 2007.

Three years ago, he had a bone marrow transplant and, as a result of this, suffers from graft-versus-host-disease. This causes neuropathy – nerve damage – in his feet, among other symptoms.

“Sometimes, I walk in an awkward way. At the concert, I tripped and couldn’t regain my footing. It was an unfortunate accident,” he said.

“It wasn’t a severe injury. I felt okay, so we just wanted to go back to our seats and enjoy the show. We refused to let the fall dampen our spirits.”

“I couldn’t see the show at all”

Once he’d been seen by medical staff at The O2, Mr Parrott says he was met by the venue’s security manager, alongside a group of security guards.

“They refused to let me back in. They said I was intoxicated, which I wasn’t.

“I tried very much to explain that the fall wasn’t a result of drinking too much alcohol, and that it was because I have this medical condition. But we were escorted out and couldn’t see the show at all.

“I had three beers over the course of four and a half hours. We were celebrating my wife’s birthday. She had the same amount, and no one was trying to throw her out.”

A request for a reimbursement of his tickets, which cost £157.70 for the pair, was initially rejected.

“At the time, I offered to take a breathalyser test – but they refused,” said Mr Parrott.

Mr Parrott has now been contacted directly by staff from The O2. He has received a full refund for the Glass Animals show, alongside a pair of complimentary tickets and drink vouchers for an upcoming concert of his choice.

In a statement, the O2 said: “We were sorry to hear of this and our teams have been in touch with Mr Parrot [sic] directly and have reached a resolution on this case.”

It said it prided itself on being “accessible and inclusive” and had recently been recognised by disability charity, Attitude is Everything.

“In this instance, we would like to apologise to Mr Parrot [sic] for the error and emphasise that we are constantly reviewing our procedures and staff training measures to ensure that they’re up to date and fit for purpose.

“We’re committed to building on the work done by our teams so far to ensure that everyone who visits The O2 has a best-in-class experience.”

Matthew Parrott says he wants more people to speak up when they feel they have suffered injustice.

“When you come up against The O2, you feel helpless. I think it’s easy to feel resigned to just accepting that these people can steal a special night from you.

“I’m sure there are a lot of people who have similar stories to me, who haven’t had the opportunity to speak up and point out these injustices.

“It’s unfair to be treated this way because you walk slightly differently to somebody else.”

A spokesperson for the charity Attitude is Everything, which campaigns to improve accessibility at music events, said they were “concerned” to learn about Mr Parrott’s experience.

“We will be reaching out to the organisers to seek clarification about what has happened in this case.”

“We welcome feedback on experiences of live events from disabled customers via our webpage and seek to work with organisers to identify barriers and secure lasting solutions when issues do occur.”

CCTV from a school obtained by the BBC shows autistic children being shoved into padded rooms, thrown to the floor, restrained by the neck – or left alone, sitting in vomit.

The footage from Whitefield School in north-east London resembles “torture”, one safeguarding expert told us. It shows for the first time the reality of what pupils faced.

A police investigation into the abuse footage, taken inside the special school’s “calming rooms” between 2014 and 2017, ended earlier this year without any charges. However, parents say they have been left to deal with the trauma.

The school says new leadership found the footage after the rooms had been shut and shared it with the police.

About 40 children with learning disabilities and severe mental disorders were confined for hours in the rooms – typically without food or drink.

Six of the families have agreed for the BBC to show the footage. They wanted us to reveal the scale and severity of the trauma their children had experienced – which they feel they have been misled about.

The videos show pupils, many of whom were non-verbal, clearly in acute distress, and many are seen to injure themselves for prolonged periods.

In the footage seen by the BBC, the only time staff at the school in Walthamstow intervene once children are inside the rooms is when a boy repeatedly throws his shoes at the CCTV cameras. They race in to stop him, with one teaching assistant apparently striking him.

“It broke my heart,” said the mother of one of the abused children after viewing the CCTV for the first time. “You wouldn’t even do that to a dog.”

Even now government guidance says only that removing disruptive pupils from classrooms in England must be for a “limited” duration and facilities must be “suitable”.

The BBC has also found evidence of mistreatment in seclusion rooms at other schools across the UK. One autistic child was kept inside a cage.

Meanwhile, local MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the Whitefield School footage “must lead to profound change” and described it as “jaw-dropping”.

Safeguarding expert Elizabeth Swan said it was “easily the worst footage” she had seen.

“You look at the children and they’re being defeated and responding to that treatment with self-injurious behaviour, it’s torture,” she said.

The School Prison Cells

Leaked CCTV footage reveals how special school pupils suffered while locked away in so-called ‘calming rooms’.

Whitefield School was rated as outstanding until, in 2017, Ofsted discovered the use of bare, padded rooms without windows to seclude children.

But the existence of the CCTV footage did not become public until 2021, when the BBC learned an investigation had been launched after the discovery of a box of USB memory sticks containing 500 hours of disturbing footage from inside the rooms.

In April, we exposed how safeguarding investigations commissioned by the school had proven that six Whitefield staff had abused pupils – but they were not referred to the government’s Disclosure and Barring Service, which can ban people from working with children, and three of them continued to work at the school.

Since we began investigating, we have obtained leaked school and council documents, and spoken to 17 of the 39 affected families.

Jamie’s mother Deborah watched the calming room footage after police formally invited families to view the abuse, following our report in April.

“You saw them open the door, whack Jamie in his back – he went flying on the floor,” she said, fighting back tears.

‘No-one’s accountable’

Jamie’s coat and bag were placed inside the room with him. Deborah says this shows that it was “calculated” that Jamie he would remain there until the end of the day, even if he calmed down.

She says Jamie suffered his first ever seizure after he began being placed in the calming rooms and believes his treatment directly resulted in his epilepsy.

Stress can contribute to the development of epilepsy or trigger seizures in those with the condition.

Other families told the BBC their children developed PTSD after being placed in the calming rooms. One child’s family said he suffered severe psychological damage and was later detained in a mental hospital because he was at risk of harming himself.

Parents said they complained to the school about unexplained injuries and the use of the rooms – but this did not lead to investigation, even though the evidence from the CCTV cameras was available.

“It’s a cover-up from higher up,” Deborah says. “I don’t see how they could get away with this level of abuse and no-one’s accountable.”

Another family complained after their son repeatedly returned home with injuries to his nose. The CCTV leaked to the BBC shows the boy punching himself in the nose while alone inside the room.

The BBC has spent months trying to find out who knew about concerns around the use of the rooms and why there was no investigation into the harm suffered by children in the calming rooms following Ofsted’s 2017 visit.

After the rooms were shut down, a review by a director of the trust running the school reported that governors and a staff member from the local council, Waltham Forest, had visited the rooms. But it did not record any concerns being raised at the time.

The BBC has learned that the job of reviewing the CCTV was largely left to a single teaching assistant.

Once a week, she downloaded the footage and compared it with written staff observations before sharing any incidents and concerns with bosses.

But she failed to report many of the 20-plus clips showing excessive force – according to a school safeguarding investigation into her conduct, which concluded she turned a “blind eye” to the failings.

It also found that she had abused a child herself by using a pad used for rugby training to push them into the corner of a room. Despite these findings, she was not sacked.

‘Left in a cage’

She told the investigation that contacting the school’s leadership was “hard to do as a teaching assistant” and had become “desensitised” to the footage, according to records of her interview obtained by the BBC.

A different teaching assistant told the safeguarding investigator that she had seen footage of a colleague observing a child masturbating for over an hour. Police reported that they were unable to corroborate what she said.

The BBC has also uncovered other failings affecting children with special educational needs placed in seclusion across the UK, with an autistic child being kept in a cage at one school about 10 years ago.

The area below a stairwell was enclosed by a cage and another cage with a mattress inside at a school called Include in Bury St Edmunds, which offers alternative provision for children outside mainstream education and is run by the charity Catch22.

The mother of the autistic child only discovered these cages were in use when she visited the school without an appointment, having grown concerned about the real nature of what was referred to as “The Den”.

She said the stairwell cage would be covered by a blanket when the child was shouting and that her son was sometimes kept inside one of these cages for up to six hours, without water or access to a toilet.

“Even an animal wouldn’t have been left in a cage for that long”, she says.

Council records state that Ofsted were informed about what the mother found but there was no inspection. Ofsted now says it cannot find any record of a complaint.

Catch22 says the spaces were used by previous leadership and a 2018 council report concluded that there was no proof pupils were locked inside.

Regulation of the use and design of calming rooms is now urgently needed – according to Sir Iain Duncan-Smith.

Following our investigation in April, the Children’s Commissioner also called for changes to guidance on the use of seclusion in special schools – which has not happened. The Department for Education says it is “looking” at ways to “strengthen” it.

The Metropolitan Police says it continues to conduct “wider enquiries” about Whitefield, not relating to abuse. The Crown Prosecution Service declined to comment.

The Flourish Trust, which runs Whitefield, says it has learned from the failings in this case.

Ofsted says responsibility for investigating the harm caused to children following its discovery of the rooms lay with the Department for Education, as regulator, and Waltham Forest.

Although it failed to investigate after Ofsted’s inspection, Waltham Forest says it will now commission a local case review, which it says will be “wholly independent”. It says it had not asked to review CCTV at any point because it did not know it existed.

Waltham Forest also says it has offered counselling to families. But the families told the BBC their children need significant and wide-ranging help to address the abuse they faced – and they will be living with its consequences for the rest of their lives.

As a guide dog handler of 25 and a half years, I’ve had hundreds of experiences of being refused service – but online threats and increasing hostility towards disabled people mean I’m giving up on asking publicly for equality and respect.

The last straw came about a week ago. I was already reeling from a number of refusals by restaurants and shops when, once again, I was refused entry because I have a guide dog.

I visited the restaurant, which I have chosen not to name, but was told I couldn’t enter as people could have allergies. This, by the way, is unlawful.

They later changed their reason – saying they simply had no space.

It’s difficult to describe how this feels.

I don’t think you can understand it unless you know what it is like to face daily discrimination.

I compare the feeling to December 2022 when I was briefly robbed of my smartphone near the BBC building in central London.

Unlike street robberies, refusals are rarely violent or physical, but the feeling of being slugged in the gut is identical.

I argue refusals feel worse – because at least I can understand the motivation of robbers.

I have never understood why, when everyone on the planet is one accident or medical condition away from disability, many people seem to lack any empathy and do not attempt to understand how it must feel to be refused service because of a disability.

After failing to politely persuade the restaurateurs that my guide dog was well-behaved and then reiterating that it is unlawful to refuse access, one customer who’d overheard me voiced their disgust at the restaurant’s attitude.

I invited people who witnessed the refusal to leave a review. Two voices from another table, however, said that I had “ruined their meal” and “you should leave”.

I felt as small as a gnat.

My guide dog journey began in 1998, when I first applied to train with one. I had poor partial sight up until the year before when, as a 14-year-old, I became completely blind.

I have a number of eye conditions, but the primary diagnosis are glaucoma and hypertension, which have left me totally blind.Media caption,

BBC’s Sean Dilley learns to live with his new guide dog after long wait

Put simply, leaving my house is hard. Very fatiguingly hard.

I’ve been privileged to work with four wonderful guides – Brandy, Chipp, Sammy and now Shawn.

They’ve been my life, my freedom and independence.

That all feels ripped away from me when I’m refused service.

At the restaurant, more customers expressed their shock at the way I was treated. But for me, the customers who seemed annoyed sparked echoes in my mind of every occasion I’ve shared refusals to social media over the past eight years.

There I’ve faced constant demands to justify why I should want equal treatment and, more perturbingly, threats of violence and even death.

Two years ago, I was refused access to different branches of Tesco in London.

Tesco apologised and promised further training for staff.Media caption,

Guide dog access refusal: Sean was told his dog wasn’t allowed in Tesco twice in one week.

The encounters were captured on a privately owned body-camera. Many people were supportive but large numbers were highly abusive and aggressive.

I have received abuse on many social media platforms. Recently one user, who identified himself as a retired police officer, posted pictures of “victim cards” which, ironically, I was unable to appreciate until described to me by a sighted colleague.

His account was later suspended – but the post was not removed when I reported it.

Other users have asked why I’m sharing my experience of service rejection. I would reply to as many questions as possible and explain that it was simply to shine a torch into a dark corner.

On other occasions, social media users have threatened to punch me, kill my guide dog and tell me I need to “be careful”. One user said my mother should be raped.

Often the most vile abuse comes in the replies to lengthy threads, where discourse seems to get out of hand.

Why would I continue to put myself through this?

In England, Wales and Scotland, the Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against a disabled person because they have a guide dog with them when accessing businesses or services.

In Northern Ireland, the same is true but the legislation is named the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

There is a large anomaly in the law though. When taxis and cabs fail or refuse to carry an assistance dog, or attempt to charge more, it is a criminal offence.

When businesses and shops do the same, it’s a civil matter and it’s down to the individual disabled person to gather evidence and pursue them. It’s costly, energy-sapping and mostly not worth doing.

Raising the incidents on social media feels torturous when it means being threatened.

So I’ve had to accept there’s very little I can practically do.

Seeing is easy.

What seems harder for some, though, is trying to understand what it feels like to be barred from businesses when you can’t.

A mental health nurse who said “I would’ve drowned her at birth” and “take her to the vets and get her put down” about vulnerable patients has been struck off.

Kathleen Alexandra Warmington was given a striking-off order by the Nursing & Midwifery Council for serious misconduct.

The community mental health practitioner, who worked in Northamptonshire, admitted making several “inappropriate comments” between August and November 2022.

She was suspended for an initial 18 months which will be replaced with a permanent suspension, although she can choose to appeal.

The hearing was told Warmington’s conduct became a cause for concern after she made numerous comments about patients and colleagues.

While speaking about one service user she said “take her to the vets and get her put down” and also stated another needed “to get a grip”.

The nurse, who had 20 years’ experience in mental health, called another patient a “naughty girl”, adding she was lucky to be given her medication.

She also said to another that “being miserable is a choice” and said “I’m not a fan of that” when discussing ADHD with a patient.

The nurse told another colleague “if she were my daughter, I would’ve drowned her at birth” in reference to someone she was entrusted with taking care of.

‘Risk of harm’

On another occasion she told a colleague to “kiss my white a**” – a comment she said she made as “banter” in an attempt to fit in after moving from a private hospital.

Finally, Mrs Warmington also suggested a patient could go to a crisis house, even though doing so was not considered to be clinically appropriate.

After being told such an admission would be not be permitted, she told the user that no beds were available at the crisis house, even though this was not true.

The panel concluded Mrs Warmington’s fitness to practice was impaired, she had committed misconduct, and her actions had put patients at an “unwanted risk of harm”.

The Northamptonshire Healthcare Foundation Trust has been contacted for comment.

Holly was just 16 when someone asked her if she could have sex because she was disabled.

She has been asked many other questions over the years, such as if she “can have rough sex” or if it needs to be in a wheelchair.

“People think they’re doing you a favour, almost like a sacrifice. The worst thing is I’m not surprised or offended anymore.”

Holly, now 26, has chronic pain and hypermobility syndrome and is one of a number of disabled women who have spoken out to challenge negative stereotypes and stigma when it comes to dating and relationships.

Holly Greader said it was important that happy relationships for those who were disabled were represented.

She started dating her now husband James when she was a teenager, and has been with him for nine years, getting married earlier this year.

“Often in the media disabled people have miserable lives, we’re just a sad story,” she said.

She added she has always felt supported by him, but felt stereotyped by others.

“I was told by people when we first moved in together, that if my health declines he’d leave me.

“For being a burden or too much to handle.”Media caption,

“How do you have sex?”

She said there were assumptions people made about her in school, which some asked to her face.

“When it comes to wheelchair users, it’s always without a doubt almost the first question, can that person have sex?”

She said the boys in her class at school would ask personal and intrusive questions.

“I got asked things like, can you only have sex in a wheelchair? Will your joints dislocate? If I wanted to have rough sex with you, would I be able to?”

Holly said people have also messaged her on social media about sex, an offer she was often made to feel she should be “lucky” for.

Holly would like to see better positive representation in the media, citing that the character Isaac Goodwin in the programme Sex Education was the only good example she has been aware of recently.

Nicola Thomas, 38, from Caerphilly, who is registered blind, said: “One of the more common things people will ask is, how do you have sex? It kind of takes your breath back, it’s such an invasive and personal question.”

Nicola has an auto immune disease – neuromyelitis optica , external– and she lost her sight in one eye 15 years ago and the other five years ago.

“A lot of people see barriers with blindness and I’m definitely one to break those down.”

Nicola’s hobbies include sailing, paddleboarding and travelling, and her next trip is to Hong Kong.

Nicola had a boyfriend when she lost her sight but the relationship broke down.

“I was treated like a burden, people would say you can’t be a carer for her, but I didn’t need a carer.”

She now has a boyfriend who is also visually impaired.

“Even though we’re both blind, we’ll navigate our way round a city, or go on a date on our own. Nothing holds us back.”

Nicola also said she feels stereotyped when people show an interest in her.

“People message on social media asking for dates, their attention shifts or acts differently when I tell them I’m blind.”

“You’re definitely treated like they’re doing you a favour. It puts you off instantly.”

Nicola added: “People do pigeon hole us. I want to breakdown that stereotype, I have a full and happy life.”

Kat Watkins said disabled people have a right to explore their sexual identity and develop relationships just like anybody else.

She is the access to politics project officer for Disability Wales.

“Why are sex and relationships such a taboo for disabled people? There is much more to us than just being able to eat and having a roof over our heads.”

“Living your life and enjoying yourself that’s just part of life, and it doesn’t get highlighted enough for people with disabilities.”

Kat said hearing examples of how people message disabled women was “sadly normalised.”

She said adaptable sex toys and aids can help give people confidence and would like to see them on more mainstream sex sites and outlets.

“You’ve got to be comfortable with yourself and understand your body, so you can tell others how it works. Self love is also really important.”

For more on this story, watch Wales Live on BBC iPlayer.