Inmate wins £74k payout after prison guards open letters
...then writes crooks’ guide on how to claim
A PRISONER who was awarded £74,000 in taxpayers’ money after guards wrongly opened his letters has written a guide explaining how other inmates can sue jail bosses.
In the latest flagrant example of convicts thumbing their noses at the authorities, violent thug Edmund Bruton posted a stepby-step account of how inmates could scoop compensation.
The jealous ex-boyfriend was jailed in 2011 after drinking a bottle of antifreeze then driving his car at 80mph into ex-lover Tara Lavery’s house.
Before the smash he texted her: ‘I will be waiting for you in hell.’
The 48-year- old took the Prison Service to court after wardens at three jails rifled through his personal mail. Bruton later wrote an inflammatory letter from his cell at HMP Onley near Rugby, demanding other inmates stand up for their rights and this week it was published in prisoners’ magazine Inside Time.
Bruton, who was convicted of damaging property with intent to endanger life, said he had been swamped with requests for advice by other inmates after his victory.
He wrote: ‘I have had a lot of correspondence since winning a judicial review for the prison tampering with my mail. A lot of people want to know how they can bring their own claims. Therefore, here is a bit of guidance. If all prisoners brought their own claims for mail tampering it is highly likely the Ministry of Justice and Prison Service would train their staff to stop acting unlawfully and wasting money from the public purse defending the indefensible.’
Bruton, who was jailed indefinitely in 2011, went on to give a series of detailed instructions on how to bring a claim. He added: ‘If unlawful mail tampering has occurred more than twice, then contact the public law department of one of the firms I’ve mentioned, or any other legal firms who will handle these matters.’
Bruton said prison governors ‘just shrug and promise improvements’ in the mail system, ‘despite years of them being told that it is illegal’.
He added: ‘If it starts costing them £70- odd thousand every time they lose a case, and there’s little chance they can win, then maybe this official law-breaking will stop.’ Bruton was awarded unspecified damages and legal aid at the High Court in April this year. Judge Martin McKenna ruled guards at three prisons – HMP Onley, HMP Swaleside in Kent, HMP Coldingley in Surrey – had opened legally privileged letters addressed to him. He ruled there had been 34 breaches of confidential mail between April 2014 and February 2017. He also found Bruton’s human rights to privacy had been breached.
The Ministry of Justice said it routinely monitored prisoners’ correspondence for security reasons.
A spokesman added: ‘Where there is reason to believe legal correspondence is being misused, governors are able to open mail in the presence of its recipient.’ He said it had updated guidance to staff regarding the interception of legal mail.