A Dublin man who claimed he was wrongly detained in a psychiatric hospital twenty years ago has been awarded nearly €3 million by a jury in the High Court.
John Manweiler, who is 64 and from Dundrum in south Dublin, had sued the Eastern Health board for unlawful detention in St Brendan's Hospital, Grangegorman for a three month period between September and December 1984 and for a time in 1991.
Mr Manweiler also claimed he was forced to take a drug called clopixol.
He had sought damages for personal injury loss and damage arising out of the negligence of the health board.
A jury this afternoon found that there was not good reason to detain Mr Manweiler and they also found there was negligence in prescribing clopixol up until 1995.
Clopixol, the High Court heard, is a psychotic drug and he claimed he was never psychotic.
Mr Manweiler had claimed he should never have been in the hospital and there was no legal authority for his being there and for the way he was treated.
