Innocent man charged €54,800 for 12 years in jail
Michael O’Brien was awarded 958,318 compensation for his wrongful imprisonment, but then had 54,800 deducted from his award to pay for his living expenses while in jail.
Mr O’Brien, aged 37, has pledged to fight British Home Office attempts to charge him for his bed and board while behind bars.
“It is absolutely outrageous in light of what I have been through. There is no logic to it. I shouldn’t have been in jail in the first place.
"It cost me my marriage and both my father and my daughter died while I was in jail. My son was one when I went to jail and I am still trying to build a relationship with him. What can compensate for that?”
Mr O’Brien’s father, Jimmy O’Brien, from Wexford, died in 1997 . His daughter, Kylie, suffered a cot death at the age of three months, while Mr O’Brien was on remand. Mr O’Brien is studying law, but has been told, because of mental health problems, that he will not work again.
Yesterday, Birmingham Six member, Billy Power described the action of the Home Office as “absolutely scandalous”.
“In my case I was given interim payments of stg£350,000 during my 12 year wait for compensation. I had to deduct that from my final settlement of £1 million as well as the £100,000 interest on the interim payment.”
He compared the action of the Home Office to “the Americans charging the innocent detainees in Guantanamo Bay”.
A spokesperson for the British Home Office said the purpose of compensation was “to place the person in the position they would have been had they not been wrongly convicted. It is absolutely not the case that the prison service asks victims of miscarriages of justice to repay them bed and board,” he said.
Mr O’Brien, from Michaelston Court, Cardiff, one of the Cardiff Newsagent Three, was jailed for the murder of newsagent Phillip Saunders in 1987. He was released in 1999 after an investigation found his conviction had been based on a “systematic disregard of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act”.
Independent assessor Lord Brennan QC awarded Mr O’Brien £647,000 (€958,318) for his time in jail, but deducted £37,000 (€54,800) for the amount he would have spent on food and rent had he not been in prison.
Mr O’Brien’s lawyers argued the Home Office had effectively charged him bed and board and had Lord Brennan’s decision overturned in the High Court last April.
However, the Home Office returned to court this week in a second attempt to claw back “saved living expenses”. Judgement at the two-day hearing was reserved. The judges are expected to make a ruling by Easter.
Mr O’Brien said the ruling would set a legal precedent and have profound implications for miscarriage of justice cases if the court rules in his favour.
Mr O’Brien said he will not accept anything less than £1 million compensation. He has already forced the Home Office to pay his own bed and board of £198.11, the cost of his three day stay in London during the High Court hearing. He has kept receipts to claim for his stay during this week’s hearing.
