Convicted murderer's damages cut to £25,000 in dental treatment case

A triple murderer who won damages over a failure by the prison service to provide him with adequate dental care had his compensation reduced – but will still get £25,000.

Michael Steele, who was convicted on three counts of murder in January 1998, was awarded 66,400, inclusive of interest, after he suffered toothache over a period of almost seven years.

Part of the July 2009 award against the Home Office, as the Department responsible for HM Prison Service, was a sum of 45,000 for general damages for pain and suffering.

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Ruling yesterday on an appeal brought by the Home Office, three judges in London reduced the 45,000 to 25,000.

Giving the ruling of the court Lady Justice Smith, sitting with Lord Justice Laws and Lord Justice Carnwath, said that as a young man Steele, who is now in his 60s, "sustained damage to his teeth while playing rugby football".

During the 1980s and 1990s he underwent extensive restorative work and since his "incarceration he has needed a good deal of dental treatment".

Category A prisoner Steele, of Great Bentley, Essex, one of two men serving life for a triple gangland killing which came to be known as the "Essex boys murder", represented himself and argued that the 45,000 was "fair and appropriate compensation".

But the court ruled that the general damages award was out of line with cases of other types by "quite a substantial margin".

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