CASTRIES, St Lucia, May 9, CMC – The Saint Lucia government has been ordered to compensate two men who spent decades in prison after being found unfit to plead, following a High Court ruling that their constitutional rights were breached through prolonged unlawful detention.
Justice Alvin Shiva Pariagsingh awarded a total of EC$2.97 million (US$1.1 million) in damages to Anthony Henry and Francis Noel after finding that the State failed for years to provide the legal and medical framework required for people deemed unfit to stand trial.
Under the ruling, Henry will receive EC$1.25 million (US$462,526) in compensatory damages and EC$100,000 (US$37,000) in vindicatory damages, while Noel was awarded EC$1.5 million (US$555,031) in compensatory damages and EC$120,000 (US$44,402) in vindicatory damages. The awards are subject to deductions for any interim payments already made.
The case was sent back to the High Court for a reassessment of damages after the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Saint Lucia’s final appellate court, ruled that both men’s constitutional right to personal liberty had been violated.
Court documents showed Henry was detained for about 24 years and Noel for more than 32 years.
Although both men had been found unfit to plead and were required by law to be held in a mental health facility for treatment and regular review, they instead remained in prison under what the court described as an unlawful regime.
In his ruling, delivered on April 28, Justice Pariagsingh stated that the case reflected a deep institutional breakdown rather than an isolated mistake.
He found that the men were subjected to years of detention without a structured therapeutic environment, periodic reassessments or the safeguards intended for mentally ill detainees.
The judge noted that while the claimants did receive psychiatric care and medication in later years, particularly after 2003, that care was inadequate and did not amount to the lawful therapeutic system required under Saint Lucia’s statutory framework.
The court also ruled that compensation had to be moderated because both men would likely have remained in secure psychiatric detention for lengthy periods even if the State had acted lawfully, given the seriousness of their mental health conditions.
Still, the court held that the difference between prison detention and proper therapeutic detention was substantial enough to justify significant compensation.
In addition to damages, the Attorney General was ordered to pay costs, with interest at six per cent per annum on the remaining sums until payment is made.
CMC/ed/2026