A Romanian carpenter who severely injured his own hand with a kitchen knife while attempting to murder his wife has won nearly £18,000 from a legal challenge against an Essex NHS health trust.

Dorinel Cojanu stabbed his former wife with an eight-inch blade at their home on June 16, 2015, and in the process sustained deep cuts on two fingers on his right hand.

He was sent to Bedford prison on remand on June 17 but was not seen by medics after Essex Partnership University Trust cancelled pre-arranged day surgery at the Royal Free Hospital listed for June 22.

Cojanu alleged that he would have made a “full recovery” had he had surgery to repair damaged tendons within 10 days of suffering the original injury.

The trust, which provided medical services to the prison, admitted a decision was made on June 19 to cancel his appointment for surgery at the Royal Free Hospital, asserting the treatment was available more locally and that a security risk arose when prisoners were given the dates for their appointments in advance of their appointments.

The trust asserted that it “wrote” to the Lister hospital on the same day asking for an appointment locally. That was delayed.

After the operation was cancelled, the trust was “negligent” in failing to fax the urgent referral letter to the Lister hospital on June 19, 2015.

As a result of the trust’s failure to treat him Cojanu lost 15 per cent functionality of his right hand, a judge has now ruled.

‘Irrelevant how he injured himself’

Mr Justice Ritchie said it was irrelevant how he was injured and that “it matters not whether he had suffered the injury opening a tin of beans, in gang warfare or whilst attempting to murder his wife”.

The trust is considering whether to appeal the decision.

At the original criminal trial the jury heard Cojanu, who was 30 at the time, had come into the kitchen when his wife was cooking, picked up a bladed knife and then stabbed her three times.

Their three children were in the house.

Cojanu was sentenced to 11 years for attempted murder in December 2015.

Cojanu brought a claim while in jail for the trust’s negligence in delaying arrangements for the appropriate treatment of his fingers on June 18 2019 against the trust and 10 other defendants including the Ministry of Justice, with damages limited to a maximum value of £5,000 pounds.

In November 2019 District Judge Reeves permitted Cojanu to amend the claim form to increase the value to £390,000. The trust consented to that order.

On April 22, 2021, District Judge Spencer granted the trust’s application to file an amended defence. That amended defence dated the February 8, 2021, alleged fundamental dishonesty by Cojanu.

It alleged that Cojanu’s personal injury claim contained evidence that was fundamentally dishonest by stating that his wife had attacked him and that he had defended himself from the knife attack and that that was how he came to have cuts to his fingers.

The trust also pleaded that in February 2016 a surgeon offered reconstruction to Cojanu who said he would think about it but never returned and never took up the offer.

In addition, the trust pleaded ex turpi causa (illegality) and relied on case law stating that his injuries and the claim were result of his own criminal actions and therefore he should be denied any damages.

On the May 7, 2021, judgement was given for the NHS by Recorder Gibbons, permission to appeal was refused and Cojanu, who by now was living in Romania, was ordered to pay the NHS’s costs.

Cojanu said he would be unable to work as a builder when he returned to Romania. The judge dismissed his request for medical costs and loss of earnings based on UK figures.

In a notice of appeal dated July 14, 2021, Cojanu appealed the Recorder’s order and on October 13, 2021, Mr Justice Henshaw gave permission to appeal reasoning that it was arguable that dishonesty relating to the cause of injury was not relevant.

‘NHS cannot turn away criminals or any other classes of person’

In his judgement, following a hearing on January 25 and 26, Mr Justice Ritchie said Cojanu’s dishonesty about how he was injured was irrelevant.

He said: “I consider that the mechanism by which the Claimant received his cut was irrelevant to success in the clinical negligence claim.

“The Claimant did not need to prove how he was cut to win the civil action. He was injured before admission to prison.

“At that time he was not convicted of anything.

“It matters not whether he had suffered the injury opening a tin of beans, in gang warfare or whilst attempting to murder his wife.

“In the civil claim at first the Claimant said nothing of the cause of the cuts. Nor did he need to. Later, when the defendant pleaded it out, the Claimant lied about the cause.

“The Claimant was being dishonest in relation to his crime, during which he was injured and for which he has never admitted his guilt.

“But the cause of the cut fingers has no relevance to the clinical negligence claim. In my judgement the mechanism of how he cut his finger is incidental to the claim or collateral thereto.”

He added: “Insurers and the NHS have to deal with every English and Welsh citizen who is injured.

“They cannot and do not turn away criminals or any other classes of person.

“They should and do not discriminate against patients on any ground.

“The same applies to the civil law.

“ So I consider that this man, who has been convicted and found guilty of the horrific attempted murder of his wife, is not deprived of his right to sue simply because he was convicted or because he was at trial and still is dishonest about what happened during his crime.”

A spokesperson for Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust said: “Our legal team are in the process of reviewing the guidance received from solicitors and will make a recommendation about an appeal in due course."