A HUGE compensation payout was made to a prisoner - even though officers saved his life, The Northern Echo can reveal.

The unknown prisoner was given an out-of-court settlement of £575,000 by the Prison Service after a suicide attempt at Northallerton Young Offenders' Institution, in NorthYorkshire.

According to jail sources, the inmate had attempted to take his life and was saved by prison officers, but he was later given the payout as compensation.

Full details of the incident have not been disclosed and the Home Office was yesterday insisting it could not comment on individual cases.

But last night, calls were being made for an immediate high-level inquiry into the payout of taxpayers' money, which could have been used to employ another 21 prison officers.

"At a time when rural post offices are closing and the new primary care trust has a huge deficit, it is disgraceful that public money is being squandered in this way," said local MP William Hague.

"I will be asking why it has been spent and why so much has been spent."

Steve Cox, national vice-chairman of the Prison Officers' Association, said: "This is absolutely disgusting, there is no other word for it.

"Here we have a convicted criminal who, during his sentence, attempts to take his own life. His life is saved - and then he walks out later with more money than many people will ever be able to earn in their entire life.

"It is obviously easier and more palatable for them to take this path instead of holding an investigation, but this is taxpayers' money and they have a right to know how and why their money is spent.

"In any other organisation there would be a proper inquiry."

He compared the level of the payout with the money received by victims of crime and terrorism. "Those victims are offered just £20 to £30,000. Clearly something is very wrong."

He added: "I presume he was claiming his human rights had been breached, but this shows that the management of the Prison Service is not fit for purpose.

"The only defence could be that he deserved this money because something wrong was done to him.

"But if something happened, it should be made known."

His call was echoed by leading Liberal-Democrat MP Phil Willis who has long campaigned about the waste of public money.

"When you have a settlement of this size the normal rules of probity demand there is an inquiry as to whether it is the best use of public money," he said.

"If there has been a level of such gross negligence that it demands this sort of payment, then we have to find out what has been happening so lessons can be learned."