The High Court has quashed a tribunal decision refusing compensation to prison officer John Aher over injuries he said he suffered while stopping a prisoner escaping at Middleton Garda Station.
Mr Aher, who had worked as a prison officer for almost 30 years, was escorting prisoners from Cork Prison to Middleton District Court with two colleagues on May 16, 2002. When officers opened a holding cell to handcuff one prisoner, the prisoner attempted to escape. Mr Aher claimed he injured his back and neck while intervening.
He applied in June 2002 for compensation under the scheme covering personal injuries criminally inflicted on prison officers.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal refused his claim on April 30, 2007. It relied on three grounds: an asserted failure to provide an up-to-date medical report, doubt that a violent struggle had occurred because Gardaí had not noticed it, and concern that correct handcuffing procedures had not been followed.
Those findings came under scrutiny in the judicial review. The High Court was told that the tribunal secretary's report incorrectly stated that only one medical report had been submitted. That error was then reflected in the tribunal member's decision.
The respondent also accepted that it was difficult to sustain the finding that no violent struggle occurred. The prisoner had subsequently been convicted in connection with the incident and sentenced to four months' imprisonment.
Sheehan J found that the tribunal member appeared simply to have adopted suggestions contained in the secretary's report rather than adequately considering all of the material. The same pattern appeared in the findings concerning the struggle and handcuffing procedure.
The judge held that this amounted to a fundamental want of fair procedures. Although the compensation scheme provided an appeal mechanism, he found that the procedural failure outweighed that alternative remedy.
The court therefore granted the certiorari sought, quashing the tribunal's refusal. The judgment does not decide that Mr Aher is entitled to compensation or state what further determination followed.