Wrongly jailed man backs payout rethink

Michael O'Brien, pictured here in 2015, is now an author and prison reformer

A wrongly jailed man who said he had £37,000 deducted from his compensation to cover lodgings while in jail says "common sense has prevailed" after the rule was scrapped.

The UK government's controversial rule removed living costs from money paid to people wrongly put behind bars.

Michael O'Brien was one of three men wrongly convicted of killing Cardiff newsagent Phillip Saunders in 1987.

The government rethink follows the case of Andrew Malkinson, who spent 17 years in jail for a rape he did not commit.

"Common sense has prevailed but is it retrospective?" said Mr O'Brien, who spent a decade in jail.

"I'm thinking of challenging it if it's not.

"It's a move in the right direction and it's got be welcomed."

The UK government said the change would apply to "all future payments made under the miscarriage of justice compensation scheme".

A reinvestigation of the murder of newsagent Phillip Saunders began in 2003 but found no further evidence

Mr Malkinson has also welcomed the move but said he still faced a two-year wait for his payment.

He has described it as "sickening, abhorrent, repugnant" that a percentage of his compensation could have been reduced before Sunday's announcement.

People 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 involving the case of Mr O'Brien and others in 2007, that total figure could be reduced to take into account "savings" individuals made on things like housing and food while imprisoned.

However, the Ministry of Justice said its independent assessors who make the deductions have not done this in the last 10 years.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has confirmed the rule would be scrapped, calling it a "common sense change which will ensure victims do not face paying twice for crimes they did not commit".

Mr O'Brien said it "should have happened years ago".

"It just wasn't fair," he told BBC Wales.

"Common sense has prevailed and it's to be welcomed."

Mr O'Brien was cleared in 1999 along with Darren Hall and Ellis Sherwood - known collectively as the Cardiff Newsagent Three.

A reinvestigation of the murder of Mr Saunders began in 2003 but found no further evidence.

In 2015, a police report concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone over the miscarriage of justice.