Qld jail inmate gets green light to launch lawsuit over prison food

A Queensland judge has ordered a prison inmate - serving 10 years for setting a friend on fire - be allowed to sue authorities over his diet in prison.

A PRISON inmate serving 10 years for dousing his drinking friend in kerosene and setting him alight for no apparent reason has been given the green light to sue authorities over their alleged failure to give him a low-fibre diet behind bars.

Supreme Court justice Peter Flanagan has ordered Michael John Hoogendoorn be given leave of the court to launch a damages lawsuit against Queensland Corrective Services and Queensland Health over their alleged failure to provide a low-fibre diet, and failure to cease giving him iron tablets in prison.

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It came as two of Queensland's most hardened criminals pleaded guilty to involvement in a prison brawl that began over a non-halal meal.

In the recent decision, Justice Flanagan also ordered Hoogendoorn, who is self-represented, be allowed to launch a damages claim for personal injury against QCS, QH and private prison operator Serco Asia Pacific Pt Ltd for serious asthma and a tooth injury, and that both departments be removed from the proceeding and sued in the name of the State of Queensland.

Hoogendoorn, who is serving a 10-year sentence, argued he should have been given a low-fibre diet from April or May 2017, and that he was over-prescribed iron in June 2017.

He argues the special diet would have reduced his diarrhoea caused by colitis, an inflammation of the colon.

He told the court he was jailed on December 7, 2011, after pleading guilty to a malicious act with intent to cause grievous bodily harm for setting fire to his 60-year-old friend as they were drinking at his home in Brisbane’s north in 2008.

Hoogendoorn told the court he is in Borallon jail near Ipswich, and is due for parole on December 7 this year.

He argues his abdomen was allegedly injured by QCS’s failure to test him for colitis in September 2016, and his ear was injured when the state government failed to give him medical treatment in March 2016.

Hoogendoorn also cites missed dental work in April 2016, which allegedly led to a tooth injury, and a failure to provide an increased dosage of an asthma inhaler drug.

No future court date has been set.