'casue that's the funking law in the UK ifyoucanbeleiveit
An innocent man who served 17 years behind bars for a rape he did not commit says he may have to pay thousands of pounds to the prison service for "board and lodgings". Andy Malkinson, 57, was found guilty of raping a woman in Salford in 2003.
The following year, he was jailed for life with a minimum term of seven years, and he served 10 more years behind bars because he maintained his innocence. Mr Malkinson's conviction was quashed by senior judges at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday after DNA evidence linking another man to the crime came to light.
However, as reported by the Manchester Evening News, he has now revealed he may have to pay for the cost of food and accommodation while he was behind bars. It's understood that this has been standard practice in miscarriage of justice cases since the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 came into force and the money will be deducted from whatever compensation he receives for wrongful imprisonment.
what a country!
they actually fixed it a few days agoA controversial rule which deducted living costs from compensation paid to wrongly jailed people has been scrapped.
The government rethink follows the case of Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail for a rape he did not commit.
He welcomed the move but said he still faces a two-year wait for his payment.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Malkinson said: "It's a step in the right direction. But there's much more that needs changing too.
"You know, you don't want to just put a sticking plaster on something that's mortally wounded."
He has described it as "sickening, abhorrent, repugnant" that a percentage of his compensation could have been reduced before Sunday's announcement.
People who are wrongly jailed for more than 10 years can be paid up to £1m under a government compensation scheme.
But since a House of Lords ruling in 2007, that total figure can be reduced to take into account "savings" individuals made on things like housing and food while imprisoned.
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