Compensation payouts that
stink....
By Susie Boniface,
Mike Edwards and Christine Challand
A
prison worker was awarded £100,000 compensation
for post- traumatic stress after she witnessed a
hostage drama that was just a training exercise.
Sandra Hickinbotham said she was terrified when
she saw three masked "inmates", one
armed with a knife, taking a prison nurse
hostage. After mounting a legal action against
the Home Office, she was offered £30,000 to
settle out-of-court. She turned the figure down
and has now got £100,000. Two other staff who
also saw the mock incident - a 50-year-old nurse
who has retired on medical grounds and a male
prison officer who is now taking Holy Orders -
accepted smaller sums. The training exercise took
place at Birmingham Prison in 1998 where Mrs
Hickinbotham worked as a £12,000-a-year
administration clerk.
Sandra Hickinbotham's £100,000 award is the
latest in a string of compensation claims that
make a mockery of our judicial system.
Heroin addict prisoner Philip Gorman was awarded
almost £5,000 compensation out-of-court for
suffering a cut thumb while dismantling a bed
frame.
Social worker Thelma Conway, 57, won £140,000 in
2001. She became depressed and short-tempered
after working up to 80 hours a week, in a care
home in Redditch, Worcs, after the previous
manager left. She said she was not competent
enough for the extra responsibility.
Dr Celia Jane Battley, 33, won nearly £500,000
in 1998 after pricking her finger on a syringe
left on a hospital trolley.
A prison officer who suffered psychological
trauma after working on a sex offender programme
for a year as a tutor, was awarded £150,000 High
Court damages.
A £100,000 payout was given to a teacher tricked
into giving an elderly colleague a chocolate
willy in 1998. Ex-deputy head Anthony Ratcliffe
won damages for an alleged ordeal of bullying. He
suffered a nervous breakdown after a year of
torment in which he claimed he was isolated,
ignored and ridiculed by a colleague.
Karl Bradley Jones was awarded £248,000 because
his foot slipped THREE INCHES down an uncovered
drain.
Derek Hersey sued the Home Office for nearly
£300,000 after claiming the bed in his cell at
Camp Hill Prison on the Isle of Wight was too
hard.
Michael Ashton launched a damages claim after
saying he got too sweaty in a prison van.
Philip Gorman sued prison chiefs after cutting
his thumb on a bed during refurbishment work at
Perth Prison in 1996. He eventually settled out
of court.
John Palmer, who once attacked a man with a
sledgehammer and had sex with a 13-year-old girl,
claimed he spent too long behind bars because the
Home Office failed to prioritise his case.
A college lecturer won £80,000 compensation for
stress she suffered in a 70-hour-a-week job.
Peter Musgrove sued the Home Office in 2000 after
being refused permission to have visits at
another jail.
...
and here's what decent people get ...
A
typical rape victim receives just £7,000 in
compensation.
Sara Payne got just £11,000 after her little
daughter Sarah, seven, was murdered.
Nursery nurse Lisa Potts, who saved kids from a
machete nut, was awarded £49,000
Francesca Quintyne, eight, had to appeal to get
£23,000 for injuries in the same attack.
Alex, the son of Rachel Nickell who saw his
mother stabbed 40 times on Wimbledon Common in
1992, was given just £22,000.
The family of murdered schoolboy Damilola Taylor
were granted just £10,000.
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