By Richard Ford, The Times, Tuesday 16th July 2002

Two ex-prisoners have dealt a serious blow to prison disciplinary hearings after the European Court of Human Rights ruled yesterday that their human rights had been breached when they were punished.

Prison governors are likely to lose their powers to sit as "judge and jury" in internal hearings relating to breaches of prison discipline after the judgment by the European court. Inmates facing hearings involving incidents that would be considered criminal outside prison will now have the right to be legally represented.

The court ruled that the two men had been denied a fair trial under Article 6 of the Human Rights Act because the seriousness of the charges against them and the punishment given should have warranted representation by a lawyer. It ordered the Government to pay the �17,124 costs of both men, but rejected their claim for �4,000 compensation.

The judgment surprised lawyers, who had expected the Home Office to win the case, although when the Human Rights Act came into force the Prison Service was aware that its internal disciplinary hearings could face a challenge. A spokesman said: "We are studying the judgment and hope to be able to make further comment in due course."

In 1998 there were 126,000 adjudications by governors for alleged breaches of prison discipline. A total of 111,000 were proved and in 75,000 cases additional days were added to offenders' sentences.

In the judgment from Strasbourg yesterday, Lawrence Connors and Okechukwiw Ezeh had claimed that their human rights had been breached after both had extra days added to their sentences in disciplinary hearings. They had also been refused the right to be legally represented. Connors had been jogging around a track in the prison exercise yard when he collided with an officer. The officer alleged that in 1997 Connors had run into him deliberately and he was charged with assault contrary to Prison Rules.

The prison governor rejected Connors's application to be legally represented at the hearing, which resulted in him being punished by having seven days added to his sentence, three days confined to his cell and a fine of �8. It was Connors's 37th offence against prison discipline.

Ezeh, a prisoner in Wakefield top-security jail, was in a meeting with his probation officer when he allegedly threatened to kill her if she did not write down what he said. The prison governor rejected his application to be legally represented at the hearing. He was given an extra 40 days on his sentence, with 14 days confined to his cell. It was Ezeh's 22nd offence against discipline and his seventh offence of threatening to kill staff.

The European court said yesterday that the punishments of 40 and seven additional days were the equivalent, in duration, to sentences handed down by a domestic court of about 11 and two weeks' imprisonment. The court ruled that the charges against both men, plus the potential penalties, were in effect criminal charges and covered by Article 6 of the convention, giving them the right to a hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal.

John Dickinson, solicitor for both men, said that the ruling had enormous importance for the way that prison disciplinary hearings would be dealt with in future. "Clearly when a prisoner is being adjudicated for a quasi-criminal offence and it is likely that additional days will be awarded against them, then they will be entitled to representation at the adjudication at that hearing."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-357017,00.html