Miscarriage of Justice – twice.

Imagine being wrongly convicted of a crime and going to jail. After years of appeals and re-investigations the mistake is discovered and you’re finally released and awarded compensation from the state. You’ve lost years of your life and your personal life is in shambles.

Imagine then that the state will then send you a bill for the room and board you got ‘for free’ for being in jail. Makes sense right? Of course it doesn’t but that’s exactly what has happened to three wrongly accused men in the United Kingdom.

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.

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

Here in Canada if we had asked David Milgaard to pay his “room and board expenses” following his compensation there probably would have been a riot. I hope there’s one in the UK over this.