A Court of Appeal judge has concluded that Darius Savickis should receive €17,225 in damages over an assault and the negligent use of restraint techniques during a 2009 incident at Castlerea Prison.
Savickis, who was then serving a six-year sentence, had refused a prison officer's direction to enter the exercise yard because he said he lacked socks and a jumper. CCTV showed an officer placing him in a headlock before several officers restrained him. Mr Justice Gerard Hogan found that Savickis was then punched three or four times in the chest while already subdued.
Savickis was taken later that day to Roscommon County Hospital with facial bruising, chest trauma and blood in his urine. Medical evidence was consistent with blunt-force injury.
A High Court jury in 2013 found that force could initially be used to maintain prison order but that excessive force had been applied. It awarded €4,500, then attributed 95% contributory negligence to Savickis, reducing the sum to €225.
On appeal, Hogan J. held there was no basis for reducing the assault damages because of Savickis's own conduct. Although his refusal to follow a lawful direction justified the initial use of force, it did not justify repeated punches after he had been restrained.
He assessed compensatory damages for the assault at €10,000 and added €5,000 in exemplary damages. He said the latter was justified not only by the intentional breach of Savickis's constitutional rights but also by evidence from prison officers denying punches that were clearly visible on CCTV.
Separately, Hogan J. accepted the jury's finding that officers had received inadequate training in control-and-restraint techniques. He retained the €4,450 negligence award under that heading but reduced it by 50% for Savickis's contributory negligence, leaving €2,225.
He would therefore allow the appeal to that extent and award €17,225 in total. The supplied judgment does not record the positions of the other two judges or a final collective order of the Court of Appeal.