Damages awarded to prisoner after attack
Judge agrees jail failed to protect child rapist from other inmates
SOUTH Africa’s prison authorities failed to adequately protect a man convicted of rape and sexual assault involving a child – whose face was slashed by an inmate – and have been found liable to pay for damages arising from his injuries.
* Malcolm‚ who was incarcerated at the St Albans Maximum Correctional Centre‚ told the Port Elizabeth High Court that inmates convicted of sexual offences‚ particularly those involving children‚ were often subjected to assaults or threats by fellow prisoners. As a result they were segregated from other inmates.
On the day that he was attacked‚ April 10 2012‚ he had gone to collect food from the prison dining hall.
On the way back to his cell with a group of prisoners he noticed there was no warder at the gate and they were not escorted back to the cells as there was a shortage of prison officials on duty.
As he made his way to his cell‚ the passage became crowded and an inmate was pacing backwards and forwards in front of him.
He felt a blow to the side of his face and fellow inmates stepped back in shock as he bled profusely from a 17cm gash inflicted with a surgical blade, from the left temporal region to the jaw line on the left side of his face.
He argued that Correctional Services officials were negligent because they had failed to prevent the prisoner arming himself with the blade and had failed to ensure his safety by segregating him from other inmates.
In a counter argument‚ Correctional Services argued the attack could not have been foreseen or avoided.
But Judge Glen Goosen said in his judgment on September 22: “It was the plaintiff’s evidence that the prison officials had employed the mechanism of controlling entry into the passage area from the dining hall to ensure that those prisoners did not mingle with other inmates.
“They were also taken to and from the exercise yard separately, for a similar reason.”
These measures, he said, pointed to an acceptance of risk associated with mingling the security prisoners with the general body of inmates and “must‚ in my view‚ indicate that the prison officials foresaw that the possibility of harm would eventuate if they were not segregated”.
“I am satisfied that the plaintiff has succeeded in establishing that the defendant is liable to him in damages for the harm suffered by him.” The amount is yet to be determined. * The inmate has not been identified by his full name to ensure that his rape victim cannot be identified.