The Tribune

Supreme Court awards record payout for man unlawfully detained

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune News Editor 

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Supreme Court has awarded a record $2m in damages to Matthew Sewell, a Jamaican man who endured sexual assault and beatings while being unlawfully detained in prison and the detention centre for nearly a decade, experiences so damaging that he became schizophrenic and developed post-traumatic stress disorder.

Justice Ruth Bowe-Darville called the government’s behaviour toward him “reprehensible” and emphasised the need to send a serious message with her damages award.

Mr Sewell was 18 when he was first detained. Overall, he was falsely imprisoned for nine years and nine months.

In 2006, he was accused of raping a six-year-old girl and was detained at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services for two years before he was granted bail in 2008. Three years later, he was again charged with rape and remained in custody for over four years without trial.

In August 2013, he was granted bail, and the rape charges from 2006 and 2009 were dismissed. Two months later, he was arrested in connection with a housebreaking incident. While on bail for that charge, he was taken back into custody as a murder suspect but was never charged.

After he denied the housebreaking allegations in 2014, a magistrate dis- missed that case, but he was taken back to prison and was not discharged.

Justice Bowe-Darville struck out the government’s defence in 2020 because it “blatantly” failed to follow the court’s directions and did not comply with discovery requirements.

Mr Sewell’s evidence was unchallenged. He sought special damages, damages for false imprisonment, damages for assaults and batteries, aggravated damages, damages for breaches of his constitutional rights, exemplary and punitive damages, vindicatory damages, damages for malicious prosecution and general damages.

Mr Sewell gave a harrowing testimony in October 2020 about his tribulations. He said he was beaten up, raped, had no water and peed openly in jugs. He said he was placed in cells with people serving life sentences and he “had to stool in a bread bag”. Rats, centipedes and other rodents surrounded him at times.

“I was bitten by a rat; got scabies and I scratched so much it turned into a sore,” he said.

He said he got into a fight with a prisoner who tried to molest him, one of many instances of violence he experienced. He said prison officers beat him in his head. At other times, he was beaten by police and defence force officers.

Mr Sewell was 30 and living in Jamaica during his 2020 hearing.

A psychiatrist who assessed him said he showed signs of decompensation: the loss of functionality “as a result of strain or stress”. The doctor said with this, “the ability to do day-to-day tasks deteriorates, which can be the start of a vicious cycle because it increases stress and strain”.

“It was reported that he was at times incoherent and eating out of garbage bins,” Justice Bowe-Darville wrote in her judgement.

The psychiatrist testified that Mr Sewell’s mental state declined because of the repeated imprisonment he endured. He also noted that Mr Sewell had a nervous breakdown shortly after he was incarcerated in 2009 and did not receive immediate care. He was admitted to Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre four times.

The doctor, who said Mr Sewell had no history of mental illness and lived life normally before coming to The Bahamas, recommended that he be placed in a group home to receive proper care and supervision. He said it was unlikely that he would ever function independently in the community.

Justice Bowe-Darville said even compared to other infamous cases of inhumane treatment for those falsely detained, Mr Sewell’s treatment was the “absolute worst of the worst”.

“Moreover, the authorities have yet to apologise or to assist him in his plight,” she wrote.

Ultimately, she awarded him $173,970 for special damages, $594,666.66 for false imprisonment and assault and battery, $378,000 for future care, $144,881.72 for psychiatric and psychological purposes, $250,000 for malicious prosecution, $250,000 for exemplary damages, $100,000 for aggravated damages and $120,000 for vindicatory and compensatory damages. She set the interest rate at 6.24 percent. Altogether, Mr Sewell was awarded $2,011,578.38.

By comparison, Atain Takitota, a man who came to the country from Japan in 1992 and was detained in prison for eight years, was awarded more than $1m for his situation, the previous record for such cases.

Douglas Ngumi, a Kenyan man who was unlawfully detained at the detention centre for six and a half years, was awarded $750,950.

Joseph Amihere, a Ghanaian man who was falsely imprisoned for nearly seven years, was awarded $751,900.

Attorney General Ryan Pinder has suggested that the detention practices that led to such rulings have ended, and the Office of the Attorney General has instituted reforms to prevent them from happening.

Fred Smith, KC, Martin Lundy and Raven Rolle represented Mr Sewell.