The United Kingdom government has notified victims of historic miscarriages of justice-including Andrew Malkinson-to tell them they will now be charged for ‘bed and board’ while they were in prison, the BBC has learned. The move will see compensation payments to those wrongly imprisoned cut by such expenses.
One such victim is Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of raping a woman in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 2003. Even though he’s been cleared of the crime, he will have £100,000 (Rs 1,068,639) deducted from his compensation to cover these costs. The previous policy that allowed for such deductions was scrapped away last year by the former Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, but the new rule brings it back and heaps extra financial pressure onto these people, who have already been put through an ordeal.
Reportedly, Mr. Malkinson, the case that inspired the policy change, has spent almost 20 years behind bars for rape he did not commit and was only officially acquitted by the Court of Appeal last July.
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Living Cost Rule Scrapped
He has urged the complete overhaul of the jury and appeals system to protect the victims of miscarriages of justice. Mr. Malkinson has said that while the living costs rule has now been scrapped, he was waiting for two years on the issue of the nature of the entitlement since it was decided by an independent board.
He urged faster procedures as well as simpler criteria and said: ‘It’s an unnecessary obstacle that’s been artificially created. It’s unacceptable and unjustified.’
A 2015 House of Commons library paper remarked that compensation was ‘rare rather than common’ for cases of wrongful conviction.
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