Taxpayer to Foot £2m Bill for Prison Brutality Scandal

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By Independent (UK)

Published: 03/18/2003

The hidden cost of the prison officer brutality scandal at Wormwood Scrubs in London is expected to exceed £2m, with the Government compensating inmates in a succession of out-of-court settlements.
The Prison Service has agreed to pay out in 20 cases where current and former prisoners have alleged that they were beaten up by officers. The compensation payments total more than £300,000. A further nine alleged victims are due to have their cases heard at civil court trials starting in May, with an additional 25 claimants still awaiting confirmation of a trial date.
The cost is in addition to several million pounds of public money spent on the criminal investigation and prosecution.
In a case at the Central London County Court on 11 September last year, government lawyers admitted they were facing about 50 claims for damages from brutality, that the claimants' legal costs already exceeded £200,000 and would ultimately rise to £1m. The Government's legal costs could total a further £1m, on top of the hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation.
The huge bill for the taxpayer comes after the largest criminal investigation in penal history, which led to 26 prison officers facing charges of violence. In a succession of trials last year, six of the officers were found guilty and three of those had their convictions overturned on appeal.
The Metropolitan Police's four-year investigation into more than 100 complaints of brutality by staff is now at an end, with a handful of remaining cases still being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Some prison officers' leaders have questioned whether the criminal investigation should have taken place at all.
But although the criminal trials showed that juries were not prepared to accept the uncorroborated evidence of prisoners, the Government's response to the civil claims suggests that many of the allegations would stand up to a lower standard of proof. The Independent has learnt that among those prisoners who have received compensation payments is a one-armed inmate who was beaten up in the jail's segregation unit after complaining of repeated strip-searching. The prisoner, who was attacked in 1993, suffered grazes and abrasions to his face, neck, back and inner thigh. He was paid several thousand pounds in damages in a settlement in 2001.
Payment was also made, in October last year, to a prisoner serving a life sentence who was assaulted by officers in the segregation unit. Senior Prison Service officials were surprised to find that six officers had accompanied the inmate into his cell to read him the 'rules' of the unit.
Timothy Donovan received a settlement last October after an alleged beating in 1998, in which he was punched and kicked for up to five minutes. Three officers received sentences of between 12 and 18 months in 2000 but their convictions were overturned on appeal.
Daniel Machover, of the London solicitors Hickman and Rose, said the payments, averaging £15,000, demonstrated the need for a public inquiry into the events at the prison. He said: 'These out-of-court settlements are not satisfactory in that even the prisoners accepting those payments feel very strongly that they are not getting the opportunity to bring what was happening at Wormwood Scrubs out into the open.'
The Prison Service said: 'There are a number of ongoing civil proceedings brought by prisoners and former prisoners at Wormwood Scrubs and therefore it would not be appropriate to comment.'
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, who commended the jail's efforts on training prisoners for work on their release, has resisted pressure for a public inquiry.
Raphael Rowe spent 12 years in jail before his convictions for murder and robbery as a member of the so-called M25 gang were quashed in July 2000.
Mr Rowe, who went on to become a reporter on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, claimed that officers at Wormwood Scrubs took him to the segregation unit where he was kicked and punched.
He alleged that officers racially abused him during the attack in January 1993. He said they shouted: 'You murdering black bastard, don't tell us what to do, we have thousands like you coming in here.'
His case for compensation was due to be heard at the Central London County Court three years ago but Prison Service lawyers opted to settle. The settlement has been described as modest.
Since his release from prison, Mr Rowe has said of the incident: 'I was assaulted by prison officers in Wormwood Scrubs. I refused to bang up and I was taken to an isolation block where four or five screws punched and kicked me.
'I had cuts on my head, arms and bruises and I couldn't sleep that night because I was frightened they'd come back. I reported it, but nothing happened until I left the prison system.'

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