A member of the racist gang which killed Stephen Lawrence is reportedly planning to sue the Government for £10,000 after being beaten up in prison.
David Norris is said to be looking for compensation from the Ministry of Justice after he was attacked by inmates at Belmarsh Prison, Woolwich.
According to the Sun on Sunday, the father-of-five from south east London was found covered in blood in his cell and needed hospital treatment for a broken nose and ribs.
He is apparently seeking compensation having accused the Government of failing to protect him.
Norris has been in prison since 2012 when he and Gary Dobson were convicted under joint enterprise over the 1993 murder of 18-year-old Lawrence, who was stabbed to death by a gang in a racially motivated murder in Eltham, south-east London.
A Prison Service woman said: “We have cut our compensation costs by more than £1 million over the past year.
“We robustly defend all claims and are successful in two thirds of cases brought against us by prisoners.”
During the trial, Norris’s defending counsel Stephen Batten QC said his client had been beaten up “several times”.
He told jurors at the Old Bailey that during one attack while on remand in Belmarsh prison, Norris’s nose was broken, he lost a number of teeth and suffered four broken ribs.
Scotland Yard Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe pledged to catch the other suspects believed to have taken part in the attack.
He said at the time that “the other people involved in the murder of Stephen Lawrence should not rest easily in their beds”.