A prisoner has been awarded £1,400 in compensation after he was bitten by a prison officer during a brawl.

David Hay was being moved to a new prison but had refused to leave Perth jail in Scotland without his quilt and in the ensuing argument was pinned to the floor and bitten in the back.

As a result of the incident, which left Hay with a bitemark for a fortnight, the Scottish Prison Service was ordered to pay the compensation on behalf of prison officer Kenny Kinnear, who carried out the act.

Hay, who served a seven-year term for culpable homicide, was cleared of a breach of the peace after he was accused of threatening Kinnear in the street after his eventual release from jail.

Earlier this week, a man who suffered a stroke after developing a drugs habit in jail was awarded compensation.

Ellis Sherwood had been wrongly convicted of murder and was awarded £1.4 million for what happened to him following the quashing of his conviction.

Compensation has been awarded to a woman who was glassed in the face after her attacker was identified via social networking site Facebook.

Jennifer Wilson was attacked in the Walkabout pub in Watford in March earlier this year.

Ashleigh Holliman, 22, of Croxley Green, pleaded guilty to charges of actual bodily harm over the incident, in which the prosecution said Miss Wilson had been doing nothing wrong.

Holliman, who works as a hairdresser, had been identified in relation with the crime after police officers tracked her down on Facebook, reports the Watford Observer.

Ms Wilson was left with a scar on her face after the assault and was awarded £2,400 by St Albans Crown Court.

Holliman will also have to undertake 120 hours of community service in addition to paying the compensation.

Earlier this week, a man was awarded £1,000 in compensation after he was attacked at a railway station in Wales.

Matthew Hale was punched to the ground and stamped on by Joshua Preece, 19, of Bridgend.

A judge has ordered a shop assistant to pay personal injury compensation out of his wages to a man he attacked at a railway station.

Joshua Preece, 19, admitted charges of actual bodily harm over the incident in which he punched and stamped on Matthew Hale in an argument over a girl, reports the South Wales Echo.

At Cardiff Crown Court, Judge Stephen Hopkins took account of Preece’s previous good character to allow him to escape being sent to a young offenders’ institution.

Instead he was ordered to pay personal injury compensation of £250 at a rate of £10 per week.

Preece, of Bridgend, will also have to carry out 120 hours of community service as part of his punishment.

The incident occurred in February this year at Pencoed Railway Station.

Earlier this year, John Guest of Poole was awarded £1,000 in personal injury compensation after he was attacked by Christopher Watts in his own home.

A man has been awarded £1.4 million in compensation after suffering a stroke following his wrongful imprisonment for murder.

Ellis Sherwood had spent 11 years in jail after being convicted of murdering a Cardiff newsagent in 1988.

The compensation was awarded to him by the Home Office after it was proven in court that his stroke was a direct result of the drug abuse he took part in during his time in prison, reports the South Wales Echo.

Mr Sherwood has previously been given compensation by the South Wales Police for the miscarriage of justice he suffered.

In October 2006 he received £200,000 from the police force after his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

Last week, the Lowestoft Journal reported that Suffolk Constabulary have paid out almost £600,000 in compensation claims against them in the past five years.

The claims included cases of wrongful arrest, physical injury and damage to property.

A food manufacturing company has been ordered to pay out £94,523 in fines and court costs after a worker suffered a severe injury to his hand.

Ludmila Jurkevica, 27, from King’s Lynn, was attempting to clear a blockage in a packaging machine when three of his fingers got crushed.

Tulip Packaging of Warwick was fined £65,000 and ordered to pay costs of £29,523 over the injury, which occurred in November 2007.

Speaking after the verdict at Norwich Crown Court, Health and Safety Executive inspector Steven Gill said: "This was a nasty incident which could have been avoided had the company checked how safe the machinery was and taken precautions to protect staff.

"Machines like these can be incredibly dangerous and cause serious injury."

In a similar incident heard in court last month, Orica UK of Wigan was fined £10,000 after an employee lost two fingers when trying to remove a blockage from a machine.

Gordon Brown has faced new questions over compensation payouts to the families of the Nimrod victims.

Last week a damning report into the 2006 crash which killed 14 RAF personnel in Afghanistan was published.

Earlier this week, bereaved family members deemed a compensation offer made by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as ludicrous and insulting.

Mr Brown was put under pressure during Prime Minister’s Question Time in regard to the issue.

MP Angus Robertson, whose Moray constituency is home to the Nimrod fleet, said: "It is a sad fact that these families [who] have waited three years are still waiting for the completion of compensation arrangements."

He added that he hoped the MoD would live up to its word to provide compensation after it admitted responsibility for the crash.

Mr Brown said the publication of the final report would allow him to properly examine the compensation issue and he would look into the matter for Mr Robertson.

A teenage girl was killed in a tragic accident when the mast of a boat being towed along a road hit the car in which she was travelling, a court has heard.

Sarah James, 19, died after the loose dinghy mast smashed through the windscreen of her friend’s car.

Mark Tissiman, a millionaire businessman whose Range Rover was towing the boat after he had been taking part in a sailing competition, is accused of failing to properly secure the mast of the boat and causing death by dangerous driving.

Prosecutor Peter Arnold told Hereford Crown Court: "The mast came out of its mooring and swung out like a lance in a medieval joust and, like two horsemen approaching, the cars approached each other."

He added that it should have been properly secured to the dinghy.

Mr Tissiman is the director of MT Heating, a West Midlands heating contractor that is employed by several local councils in the region.

The trial continues.

A leading judge has called for changes to be made in the way Fatal Accident Inquiries (FAIs) are conducted.

FAIs are public inquiries into fatal accidents, which are carried out in cases of suspicious or unexplained death.

Lord Cullen suggested that such inquiries should be made less formal and lawyers involved in the cases should no longer wear wigs and gowns.

The former lord president also said that FAIs should not be held in court anymore.

In his report related to Scotland, he stated: "My aim has been to set out practical measures for a system for inquiry into fatalities that is effective, efficient and fair."

His review into FAIs began in June 2008 and his findings also included the suggestion that a dedicated FAI team is set up.

Earlier this week, an inquiry in Scotland found that Paul Campbell, 25, of Eastriggs, had died in a quad bike accident due to the failure of a suspension unit on his vehicle, reports BBC News.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has issued a warning to remind people to take care during Bonfire Night.

It urged those hosting bonfires and fireworks displays to think about the safety of their spectators.

Nicola Butters, RoSPA’s home safety development officer in Scotland, said: "In previous years, about 1,000 people across Britain have had to go to hospital because they’ve been injured by a firework during the four weeks around Bonfire Night.

"Nearly half of such injuries are sustained at family or private parties."

She added that only adults should be allowed to set off fireworks and people needed to factor in the possibility of wet and windy conditions.

In another accident-prevention tip, the RoSPA urged party organisers not to use petrol or paraffin to light bonfires, but to stick to fire lighters instead.

The Liverpool Echo has reported that police are to man a fire engine in the city on Bonfire Night in an attempt to cut down on anti-social behaviour related to the event.

A personal trainer who was left paralysed by a snowmobile accident is seeking £300,000 in damages.

Mother-of-two Emma Moore is bringing a claim against Hotelplan, which trades as Inghams Travel, over the incident which occurred at the Paradiso Passo Tonale resort in Italy in January 2007.

Mrs Moore, from Denton, Northamptonshire, was paralysed from the chest down after the brakes failed to work on her snowmobile and it careered off the slopes into a car park where it collided with the vehicles parked there, reports the Daily Telegraph.

She is seeking damages over her claims that she was given inadequate and brief training on how to operate the machine and was not shown how to operate the emergency stop button.

The holiday company has denied liability for the incident and said that any blame lies with Adriano Trantera, the snowmobile garage owner who gave her the training.

Last month, a 19-year-old extreme snowmobile rider, Darryl Tait, was left paralysed when he was hit in the back by his machine while attempting a stunt.