Dahir Ibrahim, a Somali serial rapist serving a life sentence, has won a High Court battle against an NHS trust over how his painkillers were handed out in prison during Ramadan.
Ibrahim, who raped five women in Birmingham in separate attacks, claimed he was discriminated against because prison healthcare staff would not allow him to take prescribed codeine away from the medication hatch during the Muslim holy month. The 41-year-old argued that the arrangements meant he had to choose between taking his medication during daylight hours and observing the daytime fast.
Background of the dispute
Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust challenged an earlier ruling in Ibrahim’s favour, but the High Court dismissed its appeal in a judgment issued on September 29.
The dispute dates back to May 2019, when Ibrahim was held at HMP Birmingham and prescribed codeine for knee pain, reported the Mail. Under the prison’s arrangements, inmates had to attend a medication hatch at set times in the morning and afternoon. Codeine was excluded from the medication packs that some prisoners were allowed to take into their cells for consumption overnight because of its psychoactive effects and the risk of misuse.
Refusal and legal action
When Ibrahim attended the hatch on May 6, he was told he could not take the medication away and would have to swallow it under a nurse’s supervision. He refused. The same situation arose over the following two days, before he saw a prison GP on May 9 and was given paracetamol as a temporary alternative.
Ibrahim subsequently claimed he suffered withdrawal symptoms after missing his codeine. He brought legal proceedings against the trust, alleging breaches of his human rights, including freedom of religion and protection from discrimination.
Court ruling and implications
In 2024, Birmingham County Court ruled that the dispensing policy amounted to indirect religious discrimination. The trust appealed, arguing that providing routine medication outside normal hours would be impractical in a prison operating under strict security and staffing constraints.
Its deputy head of healthcare, Gemma McKone, argued that arranging supervised medication outside the usual timetable would be difficult when tens of thousands of prescriptions were administered under supervision each month. However, Mr Justice Soole rejected the appeal, highlighting the failure to consider alternative arrangements for Ibrahim’s medication.
The judge said: “At the time in question, the Trust and its employees had given no thought to the possibility of providing Mr Ibrahim with his prescribed medication by any alternative procedure.”
The ruling was based on the particular circumstances of the case. The judge rejected the trust’s argument that the original decision could open the floodgates to further claims. No compensation order was made, although the case is expected to inform future decisions about prison healthcare.
