(19/04/2010)

Record Compensation Claim Pay-Out for Brain Damaged Prisoner

A prisoner who suffered brain damage after falling from a bunk in his cell during a fit has been awarded millions of pounds in compensation.

The High Court ruled that Ryan St George should be paid a sum of £4.7million to cover the 24-hour care that he now needs as a result of his injuries. The compensation claim includes a lump sum and a series of periodic payments.

It is thought that this is the highest compensation claim ever awarded to a former prisoner by the High Court.

The 41-year-old was serving a four-month sentence at Brixton Prison in 1997, when he had a seizure in his cell. He fell six feet from the top bunk and hit his head on the concrete floor.

Officers at Brixton prison assigned St George to the top bunk bed in his cell, despite being told that he had a history of epileptic fits.

An ambulance was not called for around 40 minutes after the fall, and when the paramedics finally reached St George, they found him in “as bad a state as a person can be without being dead”.

In 2007 the High Court ruled that the Home Office was 85 per cent responsible for the injuries due to the negligence of the prison officers, while the other 15 per cent was contributory negligence caused by St George’s history of drink and drug abuse. The contributory negligence ruling was quashed by the Court of Appeal a year later.

Since sustaining his injuries, St George has been cared for by his 77-year-old aunt at home in Camden, North London.

Ref: HSLP0101AA290

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