The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

A MAN left permanently paralysed after being shot by police has been awarded $941,893.91 in one of the largest damages awards of its kind ever handed down in The Bahamas, nearly a decade after a bullet severed his spinal cord when he was 22.

The state has been ordered to pay Thorne Clarke for injuries that robbed him of the use of his lower body, normal bladder, bowel and sexual function and left him dependent on a wheelchair for life.

Assistant Registrar Jonathan Deal assessed the damages in a judgment dated September 21, seven years after judgment in default of defence was entered against the Commissioner of Police and Attorney General.

Mr Clarke has already received an interim payment of $80,000, leaving $861,893.91 outstanding, before applicable interest and costs.

The award includes $425,000 for pain, suffering and loss of amenities, $135,000 for loss of earning capacity, $126,546 for future medical expenses, $96,264.50 for past loss of earnings and $60,000 for nursing care provided by his mother.

He was also awarded $15,000 in aggravated damages and $50,000 in exemplary damages.

The award caps the latest stage of a case that began with a late-night encounter with police near Wilson Tract on February 13, 2016.

What led an officer to shoot Mr Clarke remains disputed. Police said officers were searching for a suspicious-looking man when they saw Mr Clarke enter his mother’s six-seater van. They surrounded the vehicle and ordered him out.

Their account was that Mr Clarke refused to comply and tried to drive away, causing an officer who feared he was about to be struck to open fire.

Mr Clarke said he stopped when ordered and asked officers why he was being stopped. He said he received no explanation and began to drive away before he was shot.

One of the bullets entered through the rear of the vehicle and struck him in the upper back, severing his spinal cord.

Mr Clarke lost control of his legs and feet and could not brake before the van crashed into a wall.

The competing accounts were never resolved at a civil trial. Mr Clarke filed his claim in 2018 and judgment in default of defence was entered on September 24, 2019. The proceedings that followed concerned how much he should receive in damages.

The shooting changed virtually every part of his life.

Mr Clarke was taken to Princess Margaret Hospital, where doctors found that he had suffered a serious spinal injury and a punctured lung. He remained in hospital for about three weeks.

Doctors later determined that his spinal cord injury was complete and that there was little prospect of him ever walking again.

He was left permanently paralysed from the T7-T8 level down, without sensation or movement in his lower body and without normal control of his bladder or bowels.

Before the shooting, Mr Clarke had attended St Augustine’s College, received a four-year scholarship to the University of The Bahamas and was working part-time at Nassau Tile Factory.

He exercised regularly, played basketball and was physically independent.

Afterwards, he could not return to his job and remained unemployed for about seven and a half years.

Mr Clarke eventually secured temporary work with the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities in 2023. In June 2024, he began working full-time on a non-permanent basis with the commission for $1,500 a month.

His medical problems have continued to interfere with his employment.

The court heard that he suffers recurring bedsores and, by the time of the assessment hearing, sometimes had to leave work early because of them.

Assistant Registrar Deal found that his disability placed him at a significant disadvantage in the labour market and that there was a real possibility he could lose his present employment.

Mr Clarke sought $360,000 for loss of earning capacity. He was awarded $135,000.

His mother also gave up her daycare business to become his primary caregiver after the shooting, looking after him full-time from March 2016 until March 2021. The court awarded $60,000 for that care.

Mr Clarke cannot drive and depends on others for transportation. He can no longer play basketball and his social life has been significantly affected.

The psychological consequences have also persisted. In 2025, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary major depressive disorder.

His future medical needs accounted for another $126,546 of the award, including $108,000 for diapers, underpads and related supplies over a projected 30 years and $18,546 for psychotherapy and trauma counselling.

He was awarded another $23,783.41 for past medical and other out-of-pocket expenses and $10,300 for diapers and underpads already purchased.

The $941,893.91 award was substantially below the $2,064,219.41 Mr Clarke sought, but far above the approximately $539,350 proposed by the defendants.

Mr Clarke had sought $955,000 for pain, suffering and loss of amenities alone. Assistant Registrar Deal rejected that figure as unsupported by the authorities, but also rejected the defendants’ proposed $348,240.

He awarded $425,000 after considering Mr Clarke’s permanent paralysis, loss of bladder and bowel function, loss of normal sexual function, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, recurring bedsores and the fact that he suffered the injuries in the prime of his life.

The court also awarded aggravated damages after considering what Mr Clarke endured following the shooting, including being handcuffed while paralysed and confined to a hospital bed.

The judgment records his indignity at being handcuffed for about two days after the shooting while coming to terms with the fact that he would never walk again. It also considered his account that a police officer later promised to communicate the force’s findings about the shooting but never did, and the distress he suffered over the defendants’ failure or refusal to provide assistance.

The $50,000 exemplary damages award went further, reflecting the court’s finding that an additional sum was warranted to punish, deter and mark its disapproval of the conduct involved.

In assessing the award, Assistant Registrar Deal considered some of the country’s leading cases involving state misconduct, including Atain Takitota, who was detained for more than eight years without being charged; Kenyan national Douglas Ngumi, who was unlawfully held for more than six years and subjected to degrading treatment; and the Merson case, involving a woman who was unlawfully arrested and falsely imprisoned by police.