A SELF-EMPLOYED builder who suffered severe spinal injuries on a building site has won a £1.25m compensation payout.

Dean Winstone, 47, of Hailey, near Witney, tripped and fell from first-floor scaffolding while working on a house in Cornwall in 2007.

He has been paraplegic ever since and is confined to a wheelchair. His lawyers said he will never work again.

At the High Court in London on Monday he was compensated for his pain and suffering, lost earnings and the costs of the future care.

Experts say his medical support will need to increase as he gets older.

Mr Winstone spent more than a month in Derriford Hospital, near Plymouth, before being transferred to the specialist spinal injury unit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury.

He spent more than a year and a half at the hospital as an in-patient.

Without admitting liability, lawyers for the scaffolding company, Gemini Riteway Scaffolding Ltd, which was sued by Mr Winstone, agreed to settle his case for a lump sum of £1.25m, as well as his legal costs.