Wrongly convicted pair win court battle over board and lodging bill

TWO men who served long sentences before having their convictions for murdering paperboy Carl Bridgewater quashed, yesterday won their London High Court battle over being billed for “board and lodging” whilst in jail.

In what are believed to be the first cases of their kind, a judge ruled that deductions were wrongly made from compensation being paid to Vincent Hickey, 48, and his cousin, Michael, 41. Mr Justice Maurice Kay said a decision to “discount for saved living expenses” whilst in jail was the result of a “misdirection as to the common law” and must be quashed.

The pair spent 18 years in jail after being wrongly convicted of murdering paperboy Carl. A similar victory over deductions was won by Michael O’Brien, 35, who spent 11 years in jail before being cleared on appeal of the 1987 murder of Cardiff newsagent Philip Saunders. Their legal victory came in a wider, complex review conducted by the judge following challenges to the way an independent assessor, Lord Brennan QC, had assessed various aspects of the levels of compensation due to the three men.