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A convicted man has been awarded over $100,000 in damages after he was found to have been unjustly held in solitary confinement for months.
Aaron Daniele, 34, successfully sued the South Australian Department of Correctional Services just prior to Christmas last year for the time he spent in Yatala Prison’s notorious maximum security division at Northfield, in Adelaide‘s north, nearly seven years earlier.
Daniele, who suffers from PTSD, anxiety, panic attacks and depression, was transferred to the prison without a formal report or risk assessment, breaching state law.
He would then spend 66 days in the notorious G Division of the prison, where it was found he faced mental anguish from the claustrophobic prison cell and prison guards.
Daniele was awarded $107,500 in damages, $2,000 more than he asked for, which will stay in a secure fund for 12 months and 45 days to give victims of his crimes a chance to sue him for damages.
A convicted burglar, Aaron Daniele (pictured, 2017) has been awarded more than $100K in damages after he was unlawfully placed in maximum security for 66 days in 2016
Daniele was at the time serving a four-year sentence at Port Augusta Prison, just east of the regional South Australian town, after pleading guilty to aggravated burglary in Adelaide’s north in October, 2010.
However, a riot at the prison in October, 2016 involving 17 other prisoners set off a series of events that landed Daniele in Yatala Prison’s maximum security.
Daniele was not involved or charged in regards to the riot but had ‘breathing difficulties’ after guards used capsicum spray to subdue another prisoner in relation to the riot on Boxing Day later that year.
A prison doctor cleared Daniele the next day, however he was then transferred 300km south to Yatala Labour Prison without a formal report.
Daniele would spend 66 days in maximum security isolation until March 17, according to The Advertiser.
While in maximum security, Daniele claims prison officers would knowingly inflict mental anguish towards him.
‘One or more of the officers in G Division caused the intentional infliction of mental harm upon him by deliberately giving false information about the time he had remaining,’ Daniele’s claim stated.
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‘Such mental harm flowed from the stress and anxiety caused by the extremely claustrophobic, restricted and oppressive environment of G Division.
‘(The officers) should have foreseen that a person of normal fortitude in (his) position might suffer psychiatric injury or an exacerbation.’
Daniele, now 34, was transferred from Port Augusta prison to Yatala Prison’s (pictured) notorious maximum security G division
Daniele’s claim against the Department of Correctional Services SA claimed guards would mentally torment him over his 66 days in isolation in G division (pictured)
The department of Correctional Services did not mount a defence, and shortly before Christmas, 2022, Magistrate Michael Fotheringham oversaw settlement orders of $107,500.
The settlement will be placed in a secure fund until March, 2024 in order to give time for victims of Daniele’s crimes to launch a private suit for damages.
‘Notice is given that an award of damages has been made to Aaron Daniele in a claim against the State,’ the department’s website reads.
‘Award monies have been paid into the Prisoner Compensation Quarantine Fund, where it will be held until legal proceedings are finally determined, initially 12 months.
‘Victims in relation to the criminal acts of Aaron Daniele are invited to seek further information from the Chief Executive, Department for Correctional Services, South Australia.’
The South Australian Department of Correctional Services has been approached for comment by Daily Mail Australia.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
