Nicholas’s story: ‘I’ve been locked up for 10 years because I’m autistic. Is a chance at life too much to ask?’

Special Report: At 28, he has been trapped in dementia care units and A&E wards. He has been abused by nurses and held in padded rooms. But in a decade, he’s never had the care he requires. Now Nicholas tells Rebecca Thomas what life is like for him and the thousands like him across the UK – and ask why they can’t get the help they so desperately need.