Six Canadian inmates have filed a suit against the government with an eye to receiving $15 million after seeing prisoner Anthony George killing his cellmate Adam Kargus on October 31, 2013. George was later charged with second-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The detainees, who happened to be locked up near that cell, did not receive adequate professional counseling from the authorities in the wake of the heinous incident. While the murderer described what he had done, and even bragged about it, the witnesses suffered from deep psychological trauma.
Yet some social media users did not think compensation was necessary:
At face value, the guards silent consent to the torture, rape, beating prison murder should have also resulted in life sentences. Therapy for prisoner witnesses? Maybe. Compensation? Never. FYI: Zero sympathy for violent, lockked up offenders who are lucky to be in a 🇨🇦 jail.
— Gordon Bonenfant (@ABDRT2OIL) December 1, 2017
In the meantime, the inmates confessed that the staff refused to intervene and stop the "brutal and prolonged" assault. Today, they seek justice and admission from the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre that it violated their rights to security.
"It was so gruesome and long-lasting and they were so helpless to do anything that no matter how hardened or how many other horrible experiences they might have gone through, this was by far the worst and most devastating to their psyche," their lawyer Kevin Egan commented.
READ MORE: Canada Fails to Ensure Security for Mentally Ill Prisoners
Egan added that "this is first class action (regarding a jail) in the province of Ontario to be certified."
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services said that Ontario could not make any statement since the case was still before the courts.
