Our military injury solicitors secured a six figure compensation settlement for a cyber-crime specialist who suffered mental trauma after being denied psychological support.
What Happened
Our client, David*, worked in the military Cyber Crime Centre, Special Ops Regiment in the Ministry of Defence (MoD). David’s job was to analyse highly sensitive and distressing material online. This included indecent images of children, paedophiles, child abuse, child pornography, beheadings, executions, captured personnel and dead bodies.
When David first started, he benefitted from a health surveillance system which offered emotional support and a mental health check with an independent clinical psychologist every six months. However, in early 2017 the MoD decided to discontinue this contract which meant they no longer provided any mental health or psychological support for their employees.
On top of this, David’s department was under-staffed which meant he had to process a greater volume of distressing and sensitive material, all without mental health support. David started experiencing mental health difficulties a few months later.
He raised his concerns with the chain of command on many occasions because of the growing volume of work he was getting as other team members left. Sadly his superiors dismissed his concerns each time.
Two years later, David was diagnosed with PTSD and suffered panic attacks, headaches, anxiety, insomnia and flashbacks. As a result of David’s psychiatric injury, the MoD medically discharged him from the Armed Forces.
How We Helped
David got in touch with our specialist military injury solicitor, Andrew Buckham, to help him make a compensation claim against the MoD. Andrew started by gathering evidence to show that the MoD was responsible for David’s worsening mental health and job performance.
He examined David’s military and civilian medical records to determine when his mental health had started to decline. Andrew then instructed an independent medical expert who specialised in psychiatry to comment on how bad David’s condition had become and what had likely caused it. He also asked the expert for what treatment and support would help David the most.
Andrew also examined David’s occupation and personnel file so he could calculate David’s financial losses so we could include them in his claim. Andrew got a specialist military employment expert to look at David’s career progression and determine how much income and pension he’d lost from his worsening mental health and being medically discharged.
Andrew then presented all the evidence he’d gathered in court. The evidence showed that the MoD were responsible for David’s declining mental health and hadn’t given him enough support to copy with the stress of his role.
Getting Justice For David
As a result of Andrew’s hard work, the MoD admitted to being negligent and agreed to a six figure compensation amount at a joint settlement meeting in 2021.
Because of what he’d been through and the lack of support the MoD had given him, David is reliant upon his parents for emotional support and care.
The compensation Andrew was able to get for him helped cover the costs of future psychiatric support for David, allowing him to focus on a more positive future with his family. It also helped cover David’s loss of income from being medically discharged from his job. This gives him time to focus on his health and find a more peaceful job, as well as giving him financial security for the future.
“What David had to experience in his daily work would traumatise anyone. It’s a credit to his mental strength that he was able to do his job for so long without psychological support. I’m glad I was able to get him the compensation and the justice he deserved after everything he’s been through.” – Andrew Buckham, military injury solicitor.
If you’ve suffered an injury or trauma while working in military service, our specialist military injury claims solicitors could help you claim compensation.
*Not actual names used.
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