North's police officers win right to seek compensation for stress

Thousands of serving and former police officers in the North today won the right to make compensation claims for post-traumatic stress suffered as a result of decades of violence.

Mr Justice Patrick Coughlin ruled in the Belfast High Court that there had been “systematic failures” in the way officers had been treated.

His ruling followed a marathon civil action taken by legal representatives of more than 5,000 officers, past and present, who also alleged they endured anxiety and depression because of their exposure to terrorist atrocities.

Successive chief constables and the former Northern Ireland Police Authority were accused of negligence in their duty of care by failing to provide proper facilities to deal with their mental anguish.

In his judgment following the 102-day hearing, the judge said officers had suffered “emotional damage as real as that caused by bomb and bullet”.

He said: “The society which exists in this province today is very different from that most citizens were forced to live in 30 years ago.

“There is no comparison with the dark despairing days of the terrorist campaign. That such a mood now prevails is due in part to the quiet dignity and dogged courage of ordinary men and women who place themselves between anarchy and the rule of law.”

Lawyers representing the police officers hailed the verdict, saying it had opened the door to individual claims by officers.

There has been speculation that if all 5,000 involved in the group action was successful the bill could exceed £100m (€148m).

However, the judge said there was a watershed in 1986 when the then Royal Ulster Constabulary set up an occupational health unit to deal with officers’ mental problems.

He said they had not done enough or properly resourced the unit.

He said a number of commanders had decided to rely on their own discretion on whether people should be referred to the occupational health unit.

The judge added there had been failures in a stress awareness campaign which had not been properly delivered and had not reached all officers.

However, he said within officers themselves there was a culture of suppressing symptoms when “no one wanted to be thought of as requiring to see a shrink.”

“People used alcohol as a form of self-medication,” he added.

He said problems over alcohol were recognised by the welfare branch in 1980 and by 1983 force orders had been published which recognised problem drinking and alcoholism as being a medical problem and disciplinary action was only considered as a last resort.

The Police Federation of Northern Ireland, which took the action, said: “The judgment is a vindication of the decision to bring this case before the courts on behalf of our injured members.

“We have successfully established many of the key principles that the chief constable denied to (on) the last day of the trial. We have been much more successful than our unfortunate military colleagues in London and we are delighted with the court’s findings in many respects.

“The judge found that there were ’systematic failures’ by the force in training, education and treatment.”

Similar action by former soldiers over post-traumatic stress disorder failed in the High Court in London.

The federation added: “What, however, gives us grave concern is that the court’s findings that the chief constable could be let off the hook because of appalling lack of resources which blighted the work of the occupational health unit and still does.”

The federation said that as far as it was concerned those injured in the service of the state must be looked after by the state especially when the state had been at fault.

“They have risked their health and sacrificed their lives and continue to do so. It would be a public scandal if the chief constable could avoid the consequences of his fault by saying that the government did not give him enough money.”

They said it was surely time for the chief constable and the British government to join with the federation in finding a constructive way forward to finally conclude the matter in the interests of all the injured officers, the police service and the community.

Solicitor Dorcas Crawford of Edwards & Co, who represented most of the officers, said: “We are delighted that the court has accepted that the chief constable was guilty of a number of systematic failures.

“These plaintiffs knew that they would get hurt but they got hurt and they stayed hurt because of their employer’s negligence.

“They sought acknowledgement of that and compensation to do what could be done to put it right.”

However, she said the legal team was dismayed by the finding that the chief constable neither knew nor ought to have known about long-term psychological consequences of exposure to trauma prior to the establishment of the occupational health unit in 1986.