The People Bulletin

A former prison officer from Bridgewater in Somerset has won a landmark case and been awarded a six figure sum in damages, after developing post traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of working with sex offenders.

Steven Heaven, age 44, worked in the prison service for more than 15 years, but suffered problems when he moved to HMP Grendon, a category B therapeutic prison for adult male prisoners.

Steven began to experience problems after being required to take part in the prison’s ‘therapeutic communities’ five mornings a week. As prison officer, Steven had to provide therapeutic support by facilitating groups of some of the country’s most serious and dangerous sex offenders, and listening to them talk openly about their sexual and violent offences, deviancies and fetishes.

With no prior experience as a clinician or qualifications as a therapist, Steven was required to listen with empathy to sex offenders’ accounts of their crimes, which were often expressed in detailed and graphic terms. He found this to be highly disturbing and traumatising.

In June 2007, Steven was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, but the prison would not accept his illness was caused as a result of his working conditions. So in October 2007 Mr Heaven instructed specialist personal injury solicitors Moore Blatch Resolve to look in to his case. Now, after three years of legal proceedings, a settlement has been reached and Mr Heaven has been awarded substantial damages.

Steven Heaven commented: “I knew it would be an extremely difficult case, but I decided I had to fight their decision and make a stand. It was awful having to hear the prisoners’ descriptions and I’ll never be able to forget what I heard.

Ciaran McCabe, senior solicitor at Moore Blatch Resolve, says: “What employers must learn from this case is that they must provide adequate provision of training for their employees to undertake the tasks expected of them. They need to ensure their employers are suitably qualified to undertake the tasks they are expected to do and to provide adequate support for their employees, for example by providing access to regular counselling, as should have been available in this case.”

See also: ‘HMP Grendon: Victim of its own success’ in The Guardian, 5 August, 2010.