Scottish Human Rights Law Group

The Lord Ordinary found that the conditions for the detention of remand prisoners in HM Barlinnie suffered from the triple vices (of over-crowding, lack of in-cell sanitation and an inadequate out-of-cell regime) were of such severity as to be in breach of the requirements of Article 3 prohibiting the subjecting of individuals to inhuman or degrading treatment.   Even had these conditions not be sufficient to reach the severity of a breach of Article 3 they were also found to be in contravention of the respect for individual dignity implicitly conferred by Article 8(1).  The decision to detain the petitioner in these squalid conditions of detention involving the practice of slopping out was found not to be in the circumstances a proportionate response to the problem of requiring to securely detain for the purpose of appearance in court and accordingly could not be detention in these conditions could not be said to be “necessary in a democratic society”.

Full report available here.

This finding was not challenged on appeal.

Full report of appeal available here.