Burglar awarded more than £5m damages after being stabbed in prison canteen

A burglar who suffered “life-changing” injuries after he was stabbed while he worked in a prison canteen has been awarded more than £5 million in damages by a High Court judge.

Steven Wilson, 36, sued the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) after he was struck multiple times with a nine-inch knife by a fellow prisoner as he carried out kitchen duties inside HMP Chelmsford in Essex in July 2018.

A risk assessment of Mr Wilson’s attacker, who was serving a life sentence for murder, said it was “unknown” if he could be left unsupervised but he was still deployed to work in the kitchen with access to knives.

The MoJ admitted liability over the incident but challenged the level of Mr Wilson’s claim for damages.

In a ruling on Friday, Judge Melissa Clarke awarded Mr Wilson £5,404,559.05 in damages.

In a written judgment, she 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.”

In the 112-page ruling, the judge said the injuries Mr Wilson sustained included lacerations to his liver and stomach, penetrating wounds to his abdomen and chest wall, and an incomplete spinal lesion.

The judge said as a result of the injuries, Mr Wilson needed a self-propelled wheelchair, “walking stick and walking frame to mobilise, depending on his levels of pain and fatigue”.

Judge Clarke said that during the trial in April, Mr 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”.

Mr Wilson was on remand for aggravated burglary at the time of the stabbing.

He was later convicted and sentenced to nine years, discounted to six-and-a-half-years imprisonment on account of his injuries, and was released in June 2021.

Judge Clarke said that the MoJ “very quickly accepted liability” over the attack, but disputes arose over Mr Wilson’s condition and the level of treatment that he would require, as well as the impact on his future loss of earnings.

In challenging Mr Wilson’s damages claim, the MoJ highlighted that he had a criminal record with more than 31 convictions and 22 cautions between 1999 and 2018.

Judge Clarke told the court the prison’s work/activity risk assessment for Mr 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 Mr Wilson was taken to the Royal London Hospital by air ambulance and placed in intensive care for nine days in an induced coma after emergency surgery.

He remained at the hospital for seven weeks until he was discharged to a specialist rehabilitation unit

The judge said that medical evidence in the trial described how Mr Wilson would “likely require 24 hours 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 years old.

The damages by Judge Clarke included an award of more than £2.4 million to support Mr Wilson’s future care needs.