A career burglar has been awarded more than £5m in damages by a high court judge because of “life-changing” injuries he sustained after being stabbed in prison.
Steven Wilson, 36, sued the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) after a convicted murderer stabbed him several times with a 22cm (9in) knife in July 2018 while working in the canteen at HMP Chelmsford.
Wilson sustained cuts to his liver and stomach and suffered an incomplete spinal lesion.
Wilson’s assailant was serving a life sentence for murder but was allowed to work in the prison kitchen with access to knives because a risk assessment determined that it was “unknown” if he could be left unsupervised.
Wilson was on remand for burglary at the time of the stabbing. Between 1999 and 2018, he had racked up 31 convictions.
After the stabbing, he was given a nine-year sentence, which was reduced to six-and-a-half years owing to his injuries. He was released in June 2021.
The high court judge Melissa Clarke awarded Wilson £5.4m in damages. The MoJ admitted liability for Wilson’s injuries but has challenged the amount he was awarded.
In a written judgment, Judge Clarke said: “There is no doubt that Mr Wilson’s life has been radically and permanently affected by the physical and psychiatric/psychological injuries caused by that terrible attack in the prison kitchen.
“I hope that despite his challenges, he is able to engage to the fullest extent with all the therapies that I have found he requires so that his life is as full and active as it can be.”
The judge said as a result of the injuries, Wilson needed a self-propelled wheelchair, “walking stick and walking frame to mobilise, depending on his levels of pain and fatigue”.
Clarke said during the trial in April, Wilson described how he “felt very vulnerable in prison” after the incident and “was frightened that would be attacked again, and this time be unable to protect himself or get out of trouble due to his limited mobility”.
In challenging Wilson’s damages claim, the MoJ pointed to his lengthy criminal record and disputed the amount of care he needed.
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Clarke told the court the prison’s work/activity risk assessment for Wilson’s attacker disclosed that the questions “Sufficiently trustworthy to be left unsupervised?” and “Temperament to work safely without causing disruption to others?” had been answered “unknown”.
The judge added: “Nonetheless, the defendant had deployed him to work in the prison with ready access to knives.”
The judge said Wilson was taken to the Royal London hospital by air ambulance and placed in intensive care, where doctors performed emergency surgery. Afterwards, the hospital put him in an induced coma for nine days.
The court heard that Wilson remained in hospital for seven weeks until he was discharged to a specialist rehabilitation unit.
The judge said medical evidence in the trial stated Wilson would “likely require 24-hour support and full-time use of a wheelchair for mobility both indoors and outdoors with difficulty with transfers and help with personal care and likely skin care at night” by the time he was 60.
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