G4S, the security services firm, is considering whether to step out of young offenders contracts following a series of high-profile incidents.

The latest incident took place at the Medway secure training centre in Kent, where G4S staff allegedly squeezed a 14-year-old young offender’s windpipe, while the teenager screamed “I can’t breathe” at the officers. The scenes were filmed by BBC reporters for Panorama. Five G4S staff have been arrested in connection to the incident.

In the last couple of years, G4S has been recovering from a 2013 pre-tax loss of £190m, partially brought on by the falling through of a government contract for which G4S was accused of overcharging the Ministry of Justice for the electronic tagging of offenders.

G4S is the biggest security services firms in the world, employing more than 600,000 people across the world. Its youth justice unit accounts for less than two percent of the company’s business but a disproportionate amount of scandals.

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