Children at a residential centre for youngsters with behavioural difficulties are being forced to sit still at a table in silence for hours on end as a punishment, local paper De Stentor said on Thursday.

The home, run by the Hoenderloo Group in the Gelderland town of Deelen, looks after children who have been removed from home by the courts. Now several worried parents have contacted the broadcaster about the punishment, which in one case was applied to a boy with a flat tyre.

‘I have been at the home 20 or 30 times, and during more than half the visits I witnessed some lad sitting with his hands on the table, staring into space,’ one father said.

The home has admitted that the punishment has been applied sporadically but says this is no longer used.