Ex-prisoner awarded €40k for cutting his buttock on bunk when going to use toilet

The inmate had bled profusely and had been given first aid before being removed to Beaumont Hospital where nine stitches had been inserted in a gash to his right buttock

The prisoner said as he scrambled out of his top bunk he caught his buttock on a jagged piece of metal which was the remains of safety bars which had been removed from the bed prior to him entering prison. File photo

A former prisoner in Mountjoy, who lacerated his right buttock on a defective bunk bed while going to the loo in the middle of the night, was today awarded €40,000 damages against the Minister for Justice.

Judge Terence O’Sullivan said Stephen Doyle had weeks earlier scratched his hand on the jagged remains of a safety bar on his top bunk and held him one fifth responsible for his hip injury on the basis of contributory negligence, reducing the award to €32,000.