By C1 Staff
WEST LOTHIAN, UK — A correctional officer sued for damages and lost after she was struck by a 12-foot plank of wood during a “mock riot” training course.
STV reports that Bernadette Smith worked for Kalyx, a private security firm, and was based at Addiewell Prison at the time of the accident.
Smith attended a one-day training course run by the Scottish Prison Services; the final exercise of the day was for officers to take back part of the prison that had been overrun by inmates.
The inmates were played by other officers.
Smith was given the role of a shield holder and was at the front of the group of advancing correctional officers when she was struck by a large plank of wood twice.
The piece of wood had been thrown by another officer who was acting as a rioting inmate during the exercise.
Smith’s wrist, shoulder, back and neck were injured during the exercise.
She sued and Sheriff Douglas Kinloch ruled against her, saying that the training had to be “as realistic as possible, and the pursuer’s own witness accepted that this even made it permissible for the mock rioters to strike prison officers’ shields with objects.”
No other injuries were reported from the training exercise.