A senior prison officer, who was working in the Segregation Unit at HMP Swaleside in Kent’s Eastchurch, has finally received compensation following being forced out of his job due to a violent attack by an inmate.  Iain Fleming suffered horrendous physical injuries as well as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) whilst working in the canteen.  An inmate lunged at one of his colleagues brandishing two sharpened plastic knives, and attempted to stab him in the head.  Mr Fleming rushed to restrain the inmate and found himself instead being stabbed and attacked.  The inmate stabbed the officer five times, and at one point tried to gouge out his eye.  He sustained stab wounds to his eye, head, arms, shoulder and chest.  In the months that followed, he also developed PTSD.  The officer managed to fight off the symptoms of the PTSD over time, however the injury sustained to his shoulder was so severe that he was unable to return to work as a prison officer.

A 60-year-old Salisbury man, originally from Sardinia in Italy, has received a six figure sum in compensation for developing the fatal disease, mesothelioma whilst working as a chef.  Mr Luigi Pes had moved to Britain, aged 31, in 1982.  He had been working for La Gondola Italian Restaurant in Fisherton Street in Salisbury where he was exposed to asbestos from the seals on the pizza oven and in the store room ceiling.  Mr Pes was not warned by his employers about the dangers that working with asbestos could pose to his health.  When he sought medical advice about a long-term chest infection, it was found that he had contracted the asbestos related disease.  Mesothelioma is an incurable cancer affecting the lining of the lungs.

A talented chef, who was serving in the British army, sustained injuries that were so severe he can no longer work within his trade.  Hopewell Marindire, from Kettering, had been posted to Sennerlager training camp in Germany where he had been working in below freezing temperatures.  He developed a condition known as ‘non freezing cold injury’ which caused him numbness, permanent intolerance to cold temperatures, damage to tissues and in considerable pain.  The chef, who was originally from Zimbabwe, had been working in conditions as low as 14 degrees Celsius wearing nothing more than standard issue cotton socks and leather boots on his feet.  This was despite the fact that it is well know within the military that soldiers of African origin are more susceptible to injuries caused by cold weather.

The government has been urged to make changes to the way in which veterans are treated when diagnosed with mesothelioma – a cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Armed forces charities, senior military figures and politicians have all stepped forward in a bid to provide better support to veterans who were exposed to asbestos during their time in service, and have contracted mesothelioma as a result. They are demanding that all veterans will receive the same compensation as civilians, arguing that the government is currently breaching the Armed Forces Covenant.

A warehouse worker from Plymouth has been awarded more than £500,000 in compensation after falling from a height, causing him to have his leg amputated. 47-year-old Mark Jeffery fell while cleaning out the guttering of his employer’s Plymouth-based premises ten years ago, leaving him with a shattered leg, ankle and foot. Following a total of thirteen operations to recover his leg, eight years later Mr Jeffery was forced to have his lower leg amputated.