If He Was Bright He Wouldn't Be In Prison

The prison guard told Peter Duff that he had to clear the toilet paper out of the air vent in his cell. But did the guard tell him how he was to it? No indeed, it was the guards who set the bad example by standing on the toilets to clear the vents and how was Mr. Duff supposed to clear the vent but by imitating what he'd seen done?

So it was the guard's fault that Mr. Duff fell off the toilet and scraped his shin. So the government owes him 38 thousand euro as compensation.

Look, he goes in court, here's pictures of the toilet and it wasn't secured to the wall when I stood on it and it fell over and I went with it and the suffering I've endured, etc. etc.

Were the photographs taken on the day of the accident goes Judge Joseph Mathews, but the inmate had to admit that he was moved to a new cell and he went back a few days later when the Prison Service was making repairs.

And how did you take pictures in prison His Honor further inquired, and if Peter Duff wasn't quite so thick he might have realized that the cell phone he used to take the pictures wasn't allowed in the prison.

Not against the law, is it, Mr. Duff declared, only against prison rules for an inmate to have a cell phone.

There's that, and then there's the fact that the pictures weren't taken after the accident and there's the fact that Mr. Duff didn't clear the vents when the guard was there but waited a few days until he was alone. Sure and the State's still at fault for him thinking he was to stand on the toilet in the first place.

Judge Mathews threw out the case. He couldn't, however, recover the time that was wasted.