Six staff members at a youth jail denied assaulting and threatening inmates when they appeared at Maidstone Crown Court today.

Police investigated the allegations after an undercover BBC Panorama documentary in January.

Duty operations managers Anthony Dance, 26, Christopher Lomax, 34, and Jonathan Kane, 34, and team leaders Gareth Evans, 25, Matthew Cunningham, 35, and James Beech, 26, are all accused of misconduct in judicial or public office between February 1 and December 30 last year.

Dance’s charge alleges assault and being in possession of images of trainees and misreporting incidents in official paperwork.

Dance, of Brookland Terrace, Lower Horsebridge, Hailsham, East Sussex, Lomax, of Timbertops, Chatham, Kane, of Stratford Lane, Gillingham, Evans, of Tintagel Gardens, Rochester, Cunningham, of Megby Close, Gillingham, and Beech, of Chilton Avenue, Sittingbourne, will stand trial on November 13 next year.

It is expected to last six weeks.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC continued bail for all six, conditional on non-contact with prosecution witnesses or trainees at the centre.

A seventh staff member, Alexander Williams, 34, of Chamberlain Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, will appear at the same court this afternoon.

The investigation was launched after the Panorama programme sent an undercover reporter to the Rochester site between October and December last year.

The documentary appeared to show staff using excessive force on young inmates.

Staff have since been re-trained and the Ministry of Justice has taken over the running of the site from private security firm G4S.