04 Feb Trust and Police pay compensation to bereaved victim in Human Rights Act claim
South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and West Yorkshire Police have agreed to pay £50,000 in damages following the murder of our client’s step-father, JU.
JU was killed by our client’s brother, WT, in 2017 shortly after WT had been released from a mental-health inpatient unit run by the Trust. Despite previous death threats made by WT to JU and other family members, and against the wishes of the family and his responsible clinician, WT was discharged from hospital to live with his elderly parents.
An independent review concluded that further violence from WT towards his family was both predictable and preventable and that there were significant inadequacies in the assessment and management of the risk posed by WT.
Our client brought a claim as an indirect victim of the breaches of his stepfather’s Article 2 ECHR rights for which the Trust and the Police were vicariously liable.
Robert Hamill, of Gold Jennings, said:
“No amount of money can adequately compensate our client for the loss of his step-father but we are pleased to have been able to achieve a measure of accountability for the serious failings in this case. Our hope now is that our client can move on with his life and, as far as possible, put this terrible tragedy behind him”.
Our client was represented by Nick Brown of Doughty Street Chambers and Robert Hamill of Gold Jennings. For further enquiries please contact Robert Hamill on 0208 445 9268 or robert@goldjennings.co.uk.