Convicted burglar handed £5.5m payout after being stabbed 16 times in prison canteen and left with kitchen phobia
20 September 2024, 18:33
A convicted burglar has been handed £5.5m of compensation after being stabbed 16 times whilst working in a prison canteen and being left with a phobia of kitchens.
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Steven Wilson, 36, suffered injuries including a torn liver, fractured spine and lacerated spinal cord when convicted murderer Patrick Chandler attacked him “out of the blue” in July 2018 with a nine-inch knife whilst they both worked in the kitchen at HMP Chelmsford.
He later sued the Ministry of Justice, claiming it failed to adequately assess whether Chandler was safe for kitchen work, given the opportunity to access knives and sharp items.
Government lawyers argued Wilson had “next to no history” of earning an honest penny in his life, making a multi million-pound payout “out of accord with what society would perceive as being reasonable”.
The Ministry admitted liability for the attack and agreed that Wilson is due compensation, but argued because of his 20-year criminal record, he should not get the £5m-plus damages he was claiming.
But at the High Court on Friday morning, Judge Melissa Clarke awarded Wilson a compensation payout of just under £5.5m, while also ordering the government to pay his £546,000 lawyers' bill on top.
At the time of the attack, Wilson, of Clacton-on-Sea, was on remand for an aggravated burglary, for which he was later sentenced to six-and-a-half years' imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Chandler was only 24 days into a life sentence, imposed for the brutal knife murder of John Comer, 45, in Lawford, Essex, in December 2017.
Wilson recalled Chandler “looking at him strangely” before he lashed out, as if he was “looking straight through him”.
He suffered a range of severe injuries and was left wheelchair bound after he went into prison “perfectly fit”.
Chandler later admitted attempted murder and received an additional life sentence and 10-year minimum term in November 2018.
Chandler's overall risk rating had been assessed by the MoJ as “medium”, court documents disclosed, despite two weeks before the attack having allegedly told his supervisor that “he had fantasised about violence and what he was going to do to people and about making weapons”.
Wilson's barrister, Giles Mooney KC, told the judge that, once off the operating table, he was treated in hospital for over two months and had to use a wheelchair.
He said he now needs a stick to get around, plagued by chronic pain, and has a can no longer be in a kitchen or around knives.
Giving evidence, Wilson told the judge: “I went in there a perfectly fit young man and came out in a wheelchair.”“When I see knives I feel cold,” he said from the witness box. “You don't understand the chill I get when I see a knife.
“I can't be in a kitchen or around knives because it reminds me of the attack.”
His ordeal also triggered flashbacks, PTSD and nightmares, he said, telling the court: “When I came out I kept seeing this man.
“I knew that he was behind bars, but I kept seeing him, I had dreams that he was chasing me and I'd wake up in a pool of sweat.”
