A court of appeal reduced by almost €16,000 the compensation due to the heirs of a 25-year-old inmate who had died of an overdose after the prison authorities administered methadone.

Four years ago, the court found authorities at the Corradino Correctional Facility had contributed to the fatal overdose in 1995 and awarded Carlos Chetcuti’s family almost €54,000 in damages.

Medical experts testified that the care afforded at that time to drug dependent inmates was sporadic and unprofessional.

No records of medical treatment were kept, nor was there constant monitoring of inmates who were receiving treatment.

The amount has now been cut to €38,000 after an appeals court ruled that the life expectancy and working life of a drug addict could not be as long as that of a person who did not have the habit.

Court ruled that the life expectancy of a drug addict could not be as long as that of a healthy person

The court, therefore, reduced the multiplier used in the compensation formula from 35 years to 25 years.

The Director of Prisons and the Minister of Home Affairs – who had been found responsible for Mr Chetcuti’s death – appealed the decision, along with Mr Chetcuti’s aunt.

While the authorities asked for compensation to be lowered and absolve them of responsibility, the aunt demanded a heftier compensation amount.

The Appeals Court, presided over by Mr Justice Tonio Mallia, Mr Justice Noel Cuschieri and Mr Justice Joseph Azzopardi, said it saw no reason to rule differently from the first court on the responsibility issue. It said Mr Chetcuti was, at the time, kicking a drug habit and receiving methadone in prison.

The court quoted experts who testified that the procedures employed in the management of drug prescriptions and of patients receiving methadone treatment were both poor as well as ill-defined.

According to the witnesses, the doctor who had been assigned to duties in prison at the time had not received proper training in the effects, use and prescription of methadone.

They concluded that the apparent overprescription of methadone in Mr Chetcuti’s case seemed to have been due to bad communication between the doctor and the prison staff.

The judges concurred with what Judge Philip Sciberras had noted in the original judgment: that it should not have taken the death of a jailed man for a radical change to take place in the administration of the prison systems and the general well-being of inmates.

They added that this situation was “amateurish”.

According to details of the case that emerged in court, Mr Chetcuti was given double the dose of methadone that he required.

He died of pulmonary oedema that developed as a result of methadone poisoning.

The Appeals Court said a 35-year life expectancy was too much for a person who had a history of drug abuse, even if he lived in the UK.

“The health condition of a victim ought to be taken into consideration when calculating the multiplier and this court believes that 25 years is fairer when taking into consideration all the circumstances of this case,” the court said.

It therefore reduced the compensation to €38,213.