• Autistic man locked in isolation for five years
• Lives in a "seclusion room" with just a mattress and urine bottle
• Warnings from both the Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission
• A review says he needs to be released to a community setting
• However, a delay with funding and other complications means he is still inside
An autistic man has been locked in a tiny, isolated area of a mental health unit for five years despite top-level warnings his treatment breaches human rights.
Ashley Peacock, 37, lives in almost permanent seclusion at a rehabilitation facility in Porirua, allowed just 90 minutes a day outside.
More than half Ashley's time on the "de-escalation" wing has been confined to a single, cell-like room containing nothing but a plastic-covered mattress and a urine bottle.
• READ MORE: Autistic man locked in isolation for five years: 'He's had everything stripped from him'
He sleeps there, and when staff order it, can be locked in for long periods, including a two-and-a-half year stint with less than 30 minutes out each day for exercise.
The 10m square seclusion room, part of the Tawhirimatea Unit run by Capital & Coast District Health Board, is so secret there are no pictures of it and his parents have never been allowed inside.
Autism advocate Wendy Duff, part of a group working with Ashley's family, said it was one of the worst cases she had seen.
"He didn't commit a murder. And you wouldn't have done that even with a murderer. You wouldn't do it to a dog."
Ashley, who is not a criminal, but has an intellectual disability and a schizophrenic illness, remains at the facility although both the Ombudsman and Human Rights Commission have repeatedly said he needs to come out.

Another report written this year to the National Intellectual Disability Care Agency, which has oversight of people with intellectual disabilities who have complex behavioural needs, strongly agreed with those conclusions.