Wrongly-jailed men lose 'living expense' battle

13 April 2012

Three men who spent years in jail because of miscarriages of justice will have to pay 'living expenses' for the time they spent behind bars, the Law Lords ruled today.

By a four to one majority, the judges who sit at the highest court in the land decided those wrongfully jailed must pay back 25% of their compensation.

The case involved three victims of miscarriages of justice.

Michael Hickey and his cousin, Vincent, were wrongly convicted of the murder of newspaper boy Carl Bridgewater, 13, who was shot dead in 1978 at Yew Tree Farm, Wordsley, West Midlands.

Their convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal in 1997.

Lord Brennan QC, the Home Office-appointed assessor, had awarded Michael Hickey a total of £990,000 and Vincent £506,220, subject to 25 per cent deductions to pay for their saved 'board and lodgings' expenses.

Michael O'Brien, who was 20 when he was onvicted in 1988 of the murder of a Cardiff newsagent, was awarded £670,000 compensation after spending 10 years in jail. His award was subject to the same deductions.

The three appealed to the House of Lords against a Court of Appeal ruling that the Independent Assessor was entitled to a deduction from compensation for loss of earnings made to victims of long-running miscarriages of justice cases to reflect the necessities of life which they would have had to buy from their wages had they been at liberty.

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