LONDON, Ont. -- After 15 years of living with emotional and physical scars, and a lengthy legal battle, closure has finally come for a former inmate at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC).
Fifty-three-year-old Robert Broley has reached an out-of-court settlement with the Crown after he was beaten to within inches of his life while serving a 40-day sentence at EMDC in 2004.
The attack by five inmates happened just two days into his sentence on a fraud charge.
Broley had been seen by inmates having a friendly chat with one of the guards at the jail, whom he had done some handyman work for in the past.
When a group of inmates demanded the guard’s home address, Broley refused. It was then they assaulted him, leaving him with permanent disabilities, including brain damage and post-traumatic stress.
Broley said at the time he thought about the correctional officer’s children, and didn’t want any harm brought to the family.
After being released from hospital and sent back to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence, Broley was placed in solitary confinement.
His lawyer, Kevin Egan, says the cell had been covered in human feces by the previous occupant, and had not been cleaned up. At the time, Broley was temporarily blinded, and didn’t realize the immediate health hazard he had been exposed to.
Today Broley considers himself one of the lucky ones because he survived his ordeal, referring to the many inmates who have died inside the walls of EMDC.
He plans to use his settlement to buy a home, and enjoy spending time with his two service dogs Prince and Roxanne.
Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.
