A former patient of High Royds psychiatric hospital is advising actors taking part in a major stage production about life in the Menston asylum.

Derek Hutchinson (pictured right) spent several months at High Royds after experiencing what doctors claimed was a ‘psychotic episode’ in the early 1970s.

During his time there, he was given Electro Convulsive Therapy and had major surgery during which electrodes were put into his brain.

His treatment was similar to that experienced by Nigerian illegal immigrant David Oluwale, whose story is the focus of a production running at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds.

The play, The Hounding Of David Oluwale, tells of the Nigerian’s tragic ordeal at the hands of two West Yorkshire policemen who were eventually found guilty of assault and jailed after Oluwale’s bruised and battered body was pulled from the River Aire.

The play, based on a book about Oluwale’s life, is staged by theatre company Eclipse.

Included in the production are scenes from Oluwale’s time at High Royds where it is believed he was given regular bouts of ECT.

The young immigrant was sectioned and placed in the refractory ward at the hospital – a unit specifically designed for people ‘resistant’ to treatment.

Derek, 62, said: “I was approached by the theatre group and asked if I would mind providing an insight into someone with a mental illness. They knew I had been at the same hospital where Oluwale spent eight years of his life before he died.

“He too would have endured Electro Convulsive Therapy – probably several times. They used it as a way of controlling people in those days. I was able to tell them what it was like for me so that their interpretation would be more realistic.

“They asked me all sorts of questions about what it is like to be mentally ill and about how I would have reacted after the ECT. They wanted me to help them understand people with mental health problems.

“I told them that Oluwale would have been dosed up with drugs so that he wouldn’t know what was going on. It’s like being really drunk and barely being able to walk. You don’t remember things, and you feel totally out of control and can very suddenly feel aggressive.”

Derek said he had spoken to former staff who worked at High Royds when Oluwale was there.

“They said he spent most of his time asleep under the radiators. It must have been awful for him, not understanding what was happening, having just turned up in Britain to make a new life for himself,” he said.

“There would have been no one to speak up for him or take care of him when he was let out. He would just have been turned out on to the streets and left to fend for himself after eight years in an institution. It is a real shock coming out of that place to anyone, let alone someone with nowhere to go and no-one to turn to.”

The Hounding Of David Oluwale was adapted for the stage by Oladipo Agboluaje, a specialist in African drama, who taught post-colonial drama at Goldsmith’s College in London.

The adaptation tells the compelling and disturbing story of one man’s refusal to give in.

Derek said: “I spent quite a bit of time with actors sharing my experiences. I have been invited along to see the play and am looking forward to it. I hope they get it right because it is such an important story. They obviously did their research to make sure Oluwale’s character was as realistic as possible – this month we will find out if it worked.”

Derek is himself in the middle of writing a book about his life at High Royds, entitled The Cracker Factory.

The Hounding Of David Oluwale runs until February 21. Tickets are available on (0113) 213 7700.