Michael O’Brien, who was sufferer to a horrendous miscarriage of justice, as soon as believed the Prime Minister was ‘a really compassionate man’
A Welshman who was wrongfully imprisoned for 11 years has voiced a searing accusation of hypocrisy in opposition to his former barrister, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, after shedding a authorized battle in opposition to the UK Authorities’s choice to cost him “mattress and board” for his time in jail.
Michael O’Brien and two different males — often known as the Cardiff Newsagent Three — have been jailed for the 1987 killing of newsagent Phillip Saunders however later had their convictions quashed after police misconduct within the case emerged. Following his launch Mr O’Brien, of Aberdare, was awarded £650,000 in compensation for the time he spent in jail, although an impartial assessor determined £37,000 ought to be deducted from the payout to account for residing prices like lease and meals that he would have needed to pay for if he hadn’t been jailed.
Mr O’Brien, 55, lately partnered with Paul Blackburn — who spent 25 years in jail for an tried homicide he didn’t commit after which had £100,000 mattress and board lower from his compensation — to use for a judicial evaluate of the deduction. This week a Excessive Court docket decide threw out their software, concluding: “Failing to reopen and improve previous lawful compensation awards just isn’t arguably irrational.”
Chatting with WalesOnline after the end result, Mr O’Brien mentioned it felt unusual to have fought the Authorities in court docket provided that its chief allegedly as soon as informed him the mattress and board cost was “outrageous”.
Throughout his time as a human rights barrister Sir Keir represented Mr O’Brien in a case in opposition to South Wales Police over the Cardiff Newsagent Three scandal, and in 2006 received a £300,000 settlement for his shopper — on the time described by the BBC as “the best payout of its sort in a case of false imprisonment and malicious prosecution”.
That case was separate to the mattress and board cost, however Mr O’Brien alleges the subject of the deduction got here up throughout his conversations with Sir Keir on the time. “After we received the case he took me as much as London,” mentioned Mr O’Brien. “He purchased me dinner and the whole lot.
“We spoke in regards to the mattress and board cost and he informed me it was outrageous and it ought to by no means have occurred. He was a really compassionate man at one stage. I do not recognise the man anymore.
“Take a look at him now. He is permitting his Authorities to uphold mattress and board expenses in opposition to individuals who have been wrongly imprisoned. I believe that is disgraceful. Responsible folks aren’t charged when they’re imprisoned, so why ought to harmless folks be after miscarriages of justice?”
‘Not a discrimination’
After his conviction was overturned in 1999, Mr O’Brien efficiently challenged the mattress and board deduction within the Excessive Court docket, however the UK Authorities then received within the Court docket of Attraction. On the time he determined to not enchantment that ruling due to authorized recommendation that he may face prices of round £140,000 if he misplaced once more.
However the debate returned to the headlines in 2023 when the rape conviction of Andrew Malkinson — who had spent 17 years in jail — was quashed and the then-Tory Authorities determined Mr Malkinson shouldn’t be charged for mattress and board.
The then-justice secretary Alex Chalk KC scrapped the coverage of mattress and board prices being deducted from payouts in such instances. However after coming into energy final yr the Labour authorities determined the change wouldn’t be utilized retrospectively — that means no refunds for folks like Mr O’Brien whose compensation was paid earlier than the brand new coverage.
On this week’s ruling in opposition to Mr O’Brien and Mr Blackburn, the decide, Mr Justice Andrew Ritchie, mentioned: “The truth that Authorities has lately modified the strategy to be extra beneficiant to these making use of after the coverage change just isn’t a “discrimination”… [The ex-prisoners’] purposes have been handled and accomplished lengthy earlier than the time the coverage modified.”
He added: “Failing to reopen and improve previous lawful compensation awards just isn’t arguably irrational. If it have been, each time {that a} new head of compensatory damages was developed within the final 80 years (periodical funds as an illustration), all outdated claims can be arguably re-openable on the grounds that the change ought to have been retrospective.”
Mr O’Brien has vowed not to surrender the battle. Greater than 58,000 folks have signed a petition in opposition to the deduction, and final yr his campaigning led to 22 Senedd members signing a movement calling for retrospective reimbursement of mattress and board deductions in instances like his.
“I can be writing to each single MP calling on them to boost it within the UK Parliament as properly,” he mentioned. “There’s plenty of MPs who’re outraged about it, we all know that, however they should converse up in Parliament.”
He added: “[This is] about each particular person who has been wrongfully convicted after which charged for his or her keep in jail — a spot they need to by no means have been within the first place.”
The criticism of Sir Keir was in a roundabout way addressed by the UK Authorities, which informed us residing bills haven’t been deducted from compensation since August 2023 however that “as is the case for many Authorities coverage, this variation doesn’t apply retrospectively”.
You possibly can learn extra in regards to the miscarriages of justice in opposition to the Cardiff Newsagent Three right here.
