Freed men must pay for saved rent

13 April 2012

Two men who spent 18 years in jail for a murder they did not commit have been told they must pay for the 'board and lodgings' they saved while behind bars.

Michael and Vincent Hickey were imprisoned for the killing of newspapaper boy Carl Bridgewater before eventually winning a fight to clear their names.

An independent assessor had originally ruled that the "loss of earnings" element in their compensation award should be reduced by 25% to take account of the living expenses they had not incurred during their imprisonment.

The ruling was overturned by a High Court judge, but the Home Office-appointed assessor, Lord Brennan QC, appealed on the ground that his original decision was "lawful and reasonable".

Lord Brennan had awarded Michael Hickey, 42, a total of £990,000, and Vincent Hickey, 49, £506,220, subject to deductions for saved living expenses which they would otherwise have incurred as free men.

Mr Justice Maurice Kay said in his ruling in April last year that the deduction for saved living expenses for the 18 years that Vincent and Michael Hickey spent in jail was wrong in law and should be quashed.

Newspaper boy Carl, 13, was killed in September 1978 at Yew Tree Farm, Wordsley, West Midlands, by a single shot from a shotgun.

In November 1979, the Hickeys, along with James Robinson and Patrick Molloy, were convicted of murder following a 25-day trial at Stafford Crown Court.
Mr Molloy died in prison in June 1981, aged 53.

Appeals by the surviving three defendants were rejected in 1989, but eight years later the case was referred back to the Court of Appeal and their convictions were quashed.

Solicitor Susie Labinjoh said the pair while in prison had the stigma of being known as child killers and were subjected to appalling conditions and treatment, including their food being regularly adulterated with phlegm and glass.

She said the deduction for saved living expenses had "outraged" the Hickeys.

"They could not comprehend how anyone aware of the circumstances of their imprisonment could suggest that they profited from it in any way. They felt that it added insult to injury."

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