Compensation for claimant who had throat cut by dangerous prisoner
Matthew Turner has successfully secured compensation for his client in a claim against the Ministry of Justice, after he was attacked and had his throat slit by a dangerous prisoner.
At the time of the attack, the Claimant was a prisoner in a Category B prison. He had attended the medications hatch to collect his medication when he was attacked by another prisoner, ‘Prisoner X’, who had been released from the segregation unit just two days earlier. There were no prison officers stationed at the medications hatch at the time, and CCTV footage showed Prisoner X walking up and down the corridor, and pacing back and forth, for eight minutes before the attack.
The Claimant was attended to by prison staff and paramedics, and taken to hospital where he underwent life-saving surgery. He was lucky to have survived, but suffered extensive blood loss and was left with significant physical and psychiatric injuries.
The prison records showed that Prisoner X had become increasingly violent and threatening in the weeks and months leading up to the attack. He had attacked other prisoners, threatened to assault both prisoners and officers, and told prison staff that he was thinking of killing someone. However, the prison did not take any action in response to this escalating behaviour. No risk assessment carried out, and no safeguards were put in place to manage his behaviour. Instead, he was simply released from the segregation unit back into the general prison population.
The claim settled after the Ministry of Justice made a last-minute offer on the eve of trial and after receiving the Claimant’s skeleton argument.
A few weeks earlier, the Ministry of Justice had sought to raise a suite of new legal defences, including Ex Turpi Causa, Volenti non fit Injuria, Contributory Negligence, and Fundamental Dishonesty. However, in the pre-trial review, Matthew successfully argued that these defences had been raised too late in the day and would prejudice the Claimant and cause the trial to be vacated. The judge refused permission for the Defendant to rely on these arguments.
Matthew was instructed by David Pearson and Phoebe Pratt of Broudie Jackson Canter.
Matthew is a specialist in negligence and human rights claims against public authorities, including the Ministry of Justice. He has extensive experience of cases involving injuries or deaths in custody, and is able to draw upon both his inquests and his personal injury / clinical negligence practices to advise on these claims.
