“A former prison officer who became incensed after seeing ?75,000 awarded to the inmate responsible for torturing him during a jail siege has used the courts to claim back a share of the money. Malcolm Joyce pursued his action against Marvin Pomfret, 24, as a matter of principle, even though he knew he stood to gain only ?3,500.” Five years after Joyce was injured and held captive for twenty hours at a young offenders’ institution in Morpeth, Northumberland, “he was astonished to learn that one of his assailants, Marvin Pomfret, had won his claim against a local authority for failing to give him a ’suitable’ education as a child,” a failure that allegedly contributed to the young offender’s later criminal career. (Nigel Bunyan, “Small compensation satisfies”, Daily Telegraph, Oct. 9).
