By Arthur Martin
A murderer who sexually assaulted his victim as she lay dying is demanding £50,000 in compensation after having to "slop out" his prison toilet.
Graham Hall, 28, claims he was forced to empty his toilet the "old fashioned way" after the sanitation system in his cell broke down during the night.
He believes his experience in Albany Jail, a maximum security prison on the Isle of Wight, was a breach of his human rights and made his personality disorder worse.
Hall, who killed a 76-year-old widow by stabbing her 51 times after watching a violent video, has been given permission by a judge to sue The Ministry of Justice and is thought to be receiving legal aid.
Inmates at the prison have toilets in their cells which have a modern flush system. If this sanitation system fails during the day, they are taken to toilets in another part of the jail by wardens.
However, at night prisoners are not allowed out of their cells because of the threat some of them pose to the safety of the staff.
A Ministry of Justice source said: "His case is a test case, and if successful, it will allow 40 other prisoners to make similar claims.
"All prisoners have toilets which work properly and there is no slopping out. But if the night sanitation system fails, they cannot be let out of their cells because some of them are too dangerous.
"When a toilet breaks down in a home in the UK, people will use a bucket of water to slop out until they can get it fixed. They don't sue."
Hall, from Egremont in Cumbria, was just 18 when he was jailed for life at Carlisle Crown Court in March 1998 for murdering Jane Brown Chare.
He had pleaded not guilty to murder, but admitted her manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. However, the jury took just 20 minutes to convict him of murder.
After he was sentenced the detective leading the murder case described Hall as "an evil and scheming individual".
Mrs Chare, who lived alone in her bungalow in Egremont was murdered in June 1997. Hall, who was swigging from a vodka bottle while staggering home after watching the blood-thirsty video Dead Presidents, broke in and stabbed the pensioner repeatedly with two knives from her kitchen drawer.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert described the compensation claim as "barmy" and one that "should be dismissed out of hand".
"The suggestion that a blocked loo violates anyone's rights, let alone a prisoner's, undermines genuine human rights causes and demonstrates once again that human rights laws have gone too far," he said.
"If legal aid really is being used to fund this claim it would add insult to injury and be an outrageous abuse of taxpayers funds."
Matthew Elliott, Chief Executive of The TaxPayers' Alliance, added: "With some hospitals having too few nurses to help elderly patients visit the bathroom, it shows a warped set of priorities to allow this convicted criminal the chance to claim compensation for having to essentially clean his cell.
"The right to a clean toilet is suspended when you commit a crime. If he gets a payout, it will sicken every family affected by MRSA and all right-minded people. Calling it a waste of money is putting it lightly."
A spokesman from the Ministry of Justice said: "This is an ongoing legal action and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment on the case."
In June it emerged that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money could be paid out to prisoners who are kept in jail beyond their release dates because of a backlog in parole hearings.
Hundreds of inmates, including murderers and rapists, are preparing to submit claims for damages, arguing that the delay breached their human rights.
Nearly 1,000 prisoners have had their parole hearings deferred in the past three years, with an average delay of five months.
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