Deltanine

In Britain innocent victims wrongly jailed by the courts and subsequently freed are now being billed £3000 a year for their "accommodation expenses" by the government.

The Home Office said an “independent assessor appointed by the Home Secretary takes into account the range of costs the prisoner might have incurred had they not been imprisoned”. The spokesman said the assessor was “right” to do this, adding: “Morally, this is reasonable and appropriate.”

Robert Brown was 19 when he was jailed for life for murdering a woman in 1977. He served 25 years before he was finally freed in 2002 after the courts ruled him innocent of the crime. He is now facing a bill of around £80,000 for the living expenses he cost the state.

Vincent Hickey who was wrongly convicted for killing a paperboy, was charged £60,000 for the 17 years he spent in jail. He said: “If I had known this I would have stayed on hunger-strike longer, that way I would have had a smaller bill.”

Mike O’Brien spent 10 years in jail wrongly convicted of killing a Cardiff newsagent. While he was incarcerated his baby daughter died. He was charged £37,500 by the Home Office..

Paddy Hill was one of the Birmingham Six. He was locked up for 16 years behind bars for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings by the IRA. He has been charged £50,000.

It wasn’t until two years ago that Hill was finally awarded £960,000 in compensation. However, during the years since his release, while waiting for the pay-out, the government had given him advances of around £300,000. When his compensation came through, the £300,000 was taken back along with interest on the interim payments charged at 23%!!!!! – that cost him a further £70,000.