Bizarre case smacks of victimisation

BRITAIN’S bizarre policy of charging released prisoners for bed and breakfast is bemusing, to put it mildly.

The warped obsession of civil servants with minutiae has dogged second generation Irishman, Michael O’Brien of Cardiff.

Freed following a miscarriage of justice ruling on a murder case after spending years in prison, he was awarded stg£647,000. But he also got a bill for stg£37,000, the estimated amount he would have spent on food, rent and general living expenses had he not been in prison.