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A PRISONER tries to commit suicide. He is saved by prison officers.

He ends up being paid £575,000 compensation.

Three facts which add up to the most extraordinary, mindboggling sequence of events. We find it incredible and we believe our readers will too.

But what led to a pay-out of lottery proportions to a young man who was saved from taking his own life?

It seems we are not allowed to know. This is despite the fact that he has pocketed more than half a million pounds of public money - enough to employ 21 prison officers and make a decent dent in the £5m deficit facing the neighbouring Friarage Hospital.

The paying public has a right to know how this young man's human rights were breached so badly that he warrants a windfall 20 times bigger than the average payout to victims of crime and terrorism.

If he was mistreated, why is there no record of any officer being disciplined?

Whether it comes out through an official inquiry, an answer to the question being submitted to the Home Office by North Yorkshire MP Phil Willis, or our own request under the Freedom of Information Act, we demand to know the truth.

The Home Office - that discredited, shambolic, unfit-forpurpose Government department - has trotted out the line that it cannot comment on individual cases.

We have this message for Home Secretary John Reid: People are sick of listening to lame excuses about the crass decisions surrounding law and order in this country. Sort it out - and tell us exactly what happened behind the walls of Northallerton Young Offenders' Institution.

5:41pm Friday 12th January 2007

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