Andrew Malkinson: Why are some wrongfully convicted prisoners charged jail living costs?

"Even if you fight tooth and nail and gain compensation, you have to pay the Prison Service for so-called 'board and lodging'," said Andrew Malkinson, after his first night as a free man.

Mr Malkinson - who was formally cleared of a rape he did not commit by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday - explained the rules which govern any financial claim he has to make.

The rules were originally imposed by judges in the case of men wrongly convicted of the murder of paperboy Carl Bridgewater in 1978.

"It's kind of sick," said Mr Malkinson, who served 17 years in prison before eventually being released in 2020.

The rules date back to a decision made in 2007 by the House of Lords, when it was the UK's highest court.

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Cousins Vincent and Michael Hickey, two of those convicted of the murder of Carl Bridgewater at a farm near Stourbridge in 1978, were freed by the Court of Appeal.

Their convictions were found to be fundamentally flawed in 1997, and the then home secretary Jack Straw decided that they and their co-defendant James Robinson were entitled to compensation.

Michael Hickey was awarded £1.02m and Vincent Hickey received £550,000 but, in each case, a 25% deduction was made from the section of their compensation which reflected their loss of earnings while in prison.

This was because of the living expenses they had not had to fund while in prison.

The men appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) but the court ruled in favour of the law lords' decision.

Mr Malkinson's compensation also depends on whether the justice secretary decides "a new or newly discovered fact shows beyond reasonable doubt that he did not commit the offence".

The maximum payment in cases where someone has been in jail for more than 10 years is £1m.

Michael O'Brien spent 11 years in prison before his conviction for the murder of Cardiff businessman Phillip Saunders in 1987 was overturned, and he is campaigning to change the law.

He told the BBC's World at One programme: "I remember my solicitor phoning me up, and she said, 'They're going to charge you bed and board'.

"What's the logic in this? They don't charge guilty people, they only charge innocent people.

"It was the final insult, as far as I was concerned, to an innocent man."

The Ministry of Justice said deductions from compensation were sometimes made when there had been "substantial savings" made on living costs while a person was in custody.

Mortgage or rental costs might be considered.

A ministry source said: "There's a big difference between bed and board and living costs.

"There's a big difference between a deduction and being required to pay money back."