EXCLUSIVE Notorious antifreeze-drinking convict who faced paying woman he sexually harassed £74,000 can keep the cash because she waited too long to claim it

• The 54-year-old was jailed indefinitely in 2011 after drinking antifreeze 
• Bruton then owed £45,000 to a woman he employed at his beauty spa 

Notorious prisoner, Edmund Bruton was jailed indefinitely in 2011 after drinking antifreeze before driving his car at 80mph into his ex-girlfriend’s home in a jealous rage, texting her ‘I will be waiting for you in Hell’.

The 54-year-old later won the cash pay-out at a judicial review after guards illegally opened his mail – and went on to write a ‘how to guide’ from his prison cell to advise other inmates to sue jail chiefs.

But after Bruton boasted of his success – although it’s doubtful he received as much as the £74,000 he claimed – news of the 2017 award was spotted by a woman he had crossed years earlier – and still owed thousands of pounds in compensation to himself.

Bruton owed £45,000 to a woman he employed at his beauty spa after a tribunal found he sexually harassed her by pressuring her into performing nude massages on him in 2010 – and then sacking her when she stood up to him.

However, a tribunal ruled the 52-year-old mum-of-two – who we have agreed not to name – waited too long after the MoJ paid the criminal so she lost the right to claim from it.

Edmund Bruton was jailed indefinitely in 2011 after drinking antifreeze before driving his car at 80mph into his ex-girlfriend’s home in a jealous rage

Bruton never paid an award of £45,000 to a woman he employed at his beauty spa after a tribunal found he sexually harassed her

In a judgment handed down after the hearing in Exeter, employment judge Alastair Smail described his verdict as ‘regrettable’ but her claim came more than six years after she was awarded the compensation.

Judge Smail added: ‘The problem for the claimant is the extent of her inactivity following learning of the £74,000 in 2017. Six years from the judgment expired in July 2018. She had nine months within the six years after learning of the £74,000 in the press around October 2017.’

He went on to describe her explanations for not taking action sooner as ‘weak’ adding ‘there seems to be no effort’ to gather the information she needed.

Reacting to the verdict, the woman told MailOnline: ‘I am so cross about the whole thing, he lied in court and is still getting away with what he did not just to me but to other women younger than me.

‘The judge says I didn’t do enough but I did what I could.’

The woman was sexually harassed while working for Bruton who owned Amo Hair and Beauty in East Sheen, London, in 2010.

Over a three-month period, she says she performed four massages on him while he was fully naked but when she refused on the fourth occasion to continue unless he covered up he flew into a rage and accused her of discriminating against him because he was a naturist. 

A few weeks later she was sacked.

An employment tribunal in 2012 found she had been sexually harassed and awarded her £45,183.99 shortly before Bruton was jailed.

In 2017 he boasted of being handed almost £74,000 in compensation but at the latest tribunal the inmate claimed it was actually only £3,000.

The victim said: ‘When I read about him boasting about his compensation I was livid, I was absolutely furious. To think somebody like that could do what they did and then think it’s great they can sue the prison and win taxpayers’ money left me spitting feathers.

‘How the hell can he get away with this when he owes all this money to me when I can’t get a bean?

‘When a prisoner is awarded large sums of money like this, it should trigger an automatic search for what they potentially owe their victims.

‘I was awarded this money through a court of law and they should have settled his outstanding judgements before he saw a penny. He shouldn’t be allowed to just keep the money.’

His victim said: ‘I was awarded this money through a court of law and they should have settled his outstanding judgments before he saw a penny’

Bruton was awarded the damages – which includes legal aid – at the High Court in April 2017 after His Honour Judge McKenna ruled that officers at three different prisons – HMP Swaleside, HMP Coldingley and HMP Onley – had opened legally privileged letters addressed to him.

The judge ruled that there had been ’34 breaches’ of the confidential mail regime – under rule 39 of the Prison Rules, which sets out that legal correspondence is subject to confidential handling arrangements – between April 2014 and February 2017.

The judge also found that Mr Bruton’s privacy rights under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights had been infringed.

Writing from his cell at HMP Onley in Northamptonshire in prisoners’ magazine Inside Time, the 54-year-old said he had been inundated with requests for advice by other inmates who heard of his compensation win.

He wrote: ‘I have had a lot of correspondence since winning a judicial review for the prison tampering with my mail and opening legal correspondence illegally.

‘A lot of people want to know how they can bring their own claims. Therefore, here is a bit of guidance:

‘The claim I brought against HMP Swaleside and the Prison Service cost the MoJ £73,806.

‘If all prisoners brought their own claims for mail tampering it is highly likely that the MoJ and Prison Service would train their staff to stop acting unlawfully and wasting money from the public purse defending the indefensible.’

Bruton, of Wembley, north west London, was caged indefinitely in October 2011 after a trial at Inner London Crown Court.

The court heard how he had drunk a bottle of antifreeze before driving his car at around 80mph into the Berkshire home of his ex partner Tara Lavery in February 2011.

The court heard how he suspected his ex-partner, who he met in January 2010, of beginning a new relationship and sent her a text reading ‘I will be waiting for you in hell…you could have avoided this if you answered me’ just before smashing his car through her house.

His car smashed through his ex-partner’s bay window before coming to a halt in her front room, causing £62,000-worth of damage.

Bruton’s car smashed through his ex-partner’s bay window before coming to a halt in her front room, causing £62,000-worth of damage

The scene of the crash for which Bruton was jailed in 2011 – he spent six days in a coma

Bruton was in a coma for six days after smashing his car into Miss Lavery’s living room, but recovered and was jailed.

Judge Lindsay Burn told Bruton in 2011: ‘You deliberately drove into her house, knowing that she was inside and you intended to do so in a way that endangered life.

‘It is merely by chance that no more damage was done to the occupants of the house and that their injuries were not more serious or in fact fatal.’

Government sources said a strategy introduced the year after his award, in 2018, means any damages awarded to prisoners are offset against money owed to victims, CPS costs, fines and other costs.

A Prison Service Spokesperson said: ‘We successfully defend two-thirds of cases brought by prisoners and changed the rules so that any debts to victims and the courts are paid before the offender sees a penny.’

Source: Read Full Article