A charity chief has called for ‘radical system change' after whistleblowers claimed youngsters with autism were ‘abused' and mistreated at a Cardiff children's home.

Whistleblowers said children at Ty Coryton were restrained and locked up unnecessarily.

Police were already investigating the closure of two Doncaster-based children's homes suspended by Ofsted amid safeguarding concerns at Fullerton House School home and the Wilsic Hall School children's home.

Experts have drawn parallels between the latest allegations involving residential schools for children and Winterbourne View care home, where six people were given prison terms after a pattern of serious abuse of people with learning disabilities and/or autism was uncovered.

Manager at the Restraint Reduction Network charity, Alexis Quinn, said: ‘It has been 10 years since Winterbourne View, yet the parallels between what happened then and what is alleged to have been happening in Ty Coryton are both stark and distressing.

'Treating young children as sub-human, not entitled or worthy of the same safeguards as everybody else is a hallmark of closed cultures.'

Chief executive officer of disabilities charity Bild, Ben Higgins, added: ‘It is deeply disturbing that, 10 years after Winterbourne View, society still fails to protect the dignity and fundamental human rights of its most vulnerable people.

'There is an urgent need for radical system change to prevent this from ever happening again.'

Visiting professor at the University of South Wales, Edwin Jones, said: ‘The sad reality is that we cannot assume situations like this are one-off, isolated issues.

'This is unacceptable in today's day and age.'