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Legal services: Hannibal Lecter Case at HMP CardiffAs you know we are instructed by the POA in many accident claims ranging from minor slips & trips to more serious cases where the Member may have been dismissed or been medically retired due to the injuries received. Many of you are aware that I have represented POA Members in respect of a wide variety of legal issues for over 30 years but, when we received instructions in December 2000 in relation to the murder by an Inmate (Jason Ricketts) at HMP Cardiff of another Inmate on 2.4.2000 nothing could have prepared me for the horror of what had happened, of what the Members involved had gone through or, for the fact that this would result in the biggest most high risk and most expensive piece of Personal Injury Litigation ever undertaken for POA Members. The Incident At approximately 22:00hrs on 2.4.2000 inmate Ricketts who was located in the VPU activated his cell bell. He was in a shared cell with an Inmate who it transpired he had murdered. One of the Claimants, Officer T was on duty patrolling A Wing at the time. He heard the cell bell and this is what he saw - "I went to the cell, opened the observation hatch up and the cell was dark. I instructed him [Ricketts] to put the light on. He said he could not and that he had just killed his cell mate. He said the man in white in the corner of his cell had told him to kill his cell mate and himself. He then put his hands up to the observation glass and although it was dark I could see that there was blood all over his hands." He called for assistance. The Senior Officer on duty that night was one of only 12 staff on night duty (including a Health Care Officer). He heard Officer T call for urgent assistance and attended the scene. He arrived with Officers G and E. When he arrived at the cell Officer W was already there. On arrival at the scene, SO W stated: "Having been briefed by Officer T my immediate thought, before entering the cell was that Ricketts had committed an act of self harm as blood had been seen on his arms through the observation glass. There was a possibility that he and/or the other Inmate planned to overpower Staff when they entered the cell as would be inevitable. The other option was that Ricketts had murdered his cell mate because he had stated to Officer T that he had killed his cell mate. It was also possible that a fight had taken place involving the two inmates." The Staff knew that at some stage Ricketts had been sent to an outside Clinic to be evaluated only to be returned to HMP Cardiff because they believed him to have an incurable mental illness. He was therefore an inmate known to be violent and prone to acts of self harm including various forms of irrational and unpredictable behaviour. SO W made the decision to enter the cell with a three man Team armed with staves drawn. The scene that greeted the Claimants when they entered the cell was gruesome. Officer T stated - "What faced us was a scene of absolute horror. I have seen nothing like this before in my life. There was blood everywhere. … The floor, walls and bed were literally dripping with blood. The floor was covered in blood and we were effectively paddling in it to get to Ricketts. Blood was everywhere. He was standing at the back of the cell and was covered in blood. His arms were covered from his fingertips to his elbows. His cellmate, was lying on his bed wearing only a pair of jeans. He had a large incision running the length of his stomach. On the chair next to the bed was what looked like a piece of raw meat but apparently was his liver and one of his eyeballs." The Officers approached Ricketts to apprehend him. They feared that he had concealed a weapon which he might use on them - nothing was found in his cell, during a strip search or when he was later X rayed. He had a known history of assaults on Staff. Officer W stated - "Ricketts was a mad man. You could see it in his eyes. I believe there was no telling what he would do next. It was obvious that his cellmate had been mutilated but no weapon was visible. Ricketts was shouting that the man in the white suit had told him to do it. I felt disturbed by this. It felt that evil was present in the cell - the Devil or something satanic was in there with us . I really believed that something uncontrollable was happening in the cell." Ricketts was escorted to the Segregation Unit and strip searched. All of the Claimants found themselves covered in blood. Some of them were then given the task of cleaning up the blood from the landing. Three of the Staff involved have been able to resume some level of work at HMP Cardiff while the others have not. None of them, even now, could be said to have fully recovered from the horrors of whet they had to deal with. Ricketts should-
After the incident the Claimants were all required to continue working in their blood stained clothes and finish their shifts. What does say of their Employer? Lack Of Care And Respect 1 Why was it not possible and of paramount importance -
2 In the course of dealing with the Litigation it was alleged on behalf of the Claimants that the conduct of the Defendant greatly aggravated the impact of the incident and caused the them anger and anxiety because - a) Following the incident, extensive documentary evidence went missing including: i) Inmate Ricketts' entire Rule 45 file went missing. As a result, there was therefore no explanation for why he was in the VPU at all; ii) The Defendant lost the documentation relating to the decision to remove Inmate Ricketts from the Health Care Centre to the VPU on 19.1.2000. This decision would have been made by a Governor; iii) The Defendant did not know who took the decision to place inmate Ricketts in a cell with another inmate on 29.3.2000 and there was no witness or documentary evidence of such decision; iv) The nursing records for Inmate Ricketts went missing from his Nursing Notes File for the vital period from 19/1/00 until 12/4/00; |
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