POLICE investigating historic sexual and physical abuse at a detention centre have interviewed four retired prison officers under caution.

A total of 915 former inmates have come forward to report they were physically or sexually abused by staff at Medomsley Detention Centre in County Durham. The men detectives interviewed were ex-officers who worked there during the 1970s and 1980s.

They attended on a voluntary basis, were cautioned but not arrested, Durham Police said. More former prison officers were expected to be interviewed over the coming weeks.

Durham Police launched Operation Seabrook in August last year to investigate abuse at the borstal which closed in 1988. Detainees, often sent there for relatively minor offences, typically spent six to eight weeks at the Home Office-run centre before being released.

One of those who raised the alarm over the abuse was John McCabe, of East Kilbride, now in his early 50s who broke his 30-year silence on the abuse he suffered as a 17-year-old at the hands of officer Neville Husband.

Mr McCabe called for a full investigation into the abuse and the alleged cover-up. Previous police investigations in 2003 and 2005 led to the conviction and jailing of Neville Husband and Leslie Johnson, former members of staff at the centre who have since died.

Of the 915 men who have come forward to report abuse, around a third said either Husband or Johnson sexually abused them.

Detective Superintendent Paul Goundry, leading the inquiry, said: "Our initial priority was to gain a full understanding of how Medomsley Detention Centre operated in that time.

"We also needed to make counselling and professional support available to anyone who needed help, and I am really pleased that almost 200 victims have taken up this offer. Many of those who have contacted us had never revealed to anyone else what had happened to them at Medomsley all those years ago."