PRIVATE prison operator G4S suspended seven members of staff at a facility for young offenders yesterday amid allegations of abuse and mistreatment.

Staff reportedly punched and slapped some teenagers held at Medway Secure Training Centre in Rochester, Kent, a 76-bed facility for 12- to 18-year-olds, and allegedly boasted about using inappropriate techniques to restrain youngsters.

G4S, which has run the facility in co-operation with the Youth Justice Board since it opened in 1998, announced the suspensions after being told that BBC Panorama undercover reporters had been secretly filming the centre for an exposé yet to be aired.