Andrew Malkinson accused the CCRC of ‘corporate failure’ of justice (Photo: @JusticeGap)

Labour has disgustingly spurned the call for a completely basic demand for legal justice.

The government has told victims of historic miscarriages of justice they must have “bed and board” costs for the time they spent in prison deducted from their compensation payments.

Last year the Tories scrapped the policy of making such deductions from all future payouts.

That followed the high-profile case of Andrew Malkinson who was wrongfully imprisoned for 17 years.

The issue of past cases was left undecided. Labour has now said people who have already had payouts cannot claim back money retrospectively.

It has sided with the legal establishment and the civil service high-ups rather than people fitted up by the state.

Matt Foot, co-director of legal charity Appeal, said it is “immoral” that they face such deductions.

Foot said it would be “very easy” to correct the deduction made from the compensation given, and the government should “take a bit of time over this”, he said.

Among those who have been told they will not be refunded money docked from their compensation payments is Paul Blackburn.

Aged 15 he was wrongfully convicted of the attempted murder of another boy and he spent 25 years in prison.

The Court of Appeal said police had fabricated evidence.

When he received compensation in 2011, more than £100,000 was deducted to cover “rent and food costs” he would have had to pay if he had been a free man.

Blackburn says that is “morally wrong” and his solicitors may bring a legal challenge.

There is a wider issue that most of the media does not mention when reporting this case.

Some 93 percent of those who apply for compensation in such circumstances don’t receive it. Even when the system has to admit it has failed, it continues to act brutally towards its victims and to sneer at their innocence.

Easy changes the government could carry through

This scandal highlights other changes the new government could make but shows no sign of carrying through. Appeal recently called for four reforms that should be implemented immediately.

• Scrap the test for compensation

Imagine spending years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit, only to be told you need to prove your innocence beyond doubt to get compensation.

That’s exactly what happened to Sam Hallam.

Despite his conviction being overturned on strong evidence in 2012, Sam has not received any form of compensation due to the stringent and inhumane test set out in section 133 Criminal Justice Act 1998.

The government needs to scrap the brutal test altogether so that compensation is granted based on the wrongful conviction being quashed. Victims of miscarriages of justice deserve better.

• Allow access to the evidence

The defence in a criminal case should have a right of access to all non-sensitive material from police investigations.

Currently, the police and prosecution are the gatekeepers to the evidence in a criminal trial and at the appeal stage. Only they have the power to decide what the defence gets to see, and what remains hidden.

All too often the material they choose to hide is crucial for the defence case. Currently, lawyers working on wrongful conviction cases are routinely denied access to evidence by police forces and prosecutors.

In Andy Malkinson’s case, crucial evidence that could have exonerated him was not disclosed to the defence, either at the time of the trial or after his appeal was lodged. Only after Appeal took the Greater Manchester Police to court—twice—and won did the defence discover that the cops had withheld evidence that significantly undermined the prosecution case.

• Review the cases of corrupt police officers

The laws should be changed to ensure that when a police officer is imprisoned, there is an automatic independent review of their files for wrongful convictions, imposed at sentence.

The cases of police officer Derek Ridgewell highlight the need for reform.

He was a racist and corrupt police officer operating in the 1970s in London. He framed several young black men for crimes that he had in fact committed, for which they were then imprisoned. Eleven of these men have now had their names cleared. Saliah Mehmet and Basil Peterkin’s convictions were posthumously quashed in 2024, after 46 years.

Ridgewell was imprisoned for seven years for a serious crime of dishonesty in the 1980s. His cases should have been looked at the moment he was sentenced to prison.

• Create new leadership at the CCRC

The body that is supposed to act as a safety net for wrongly convicted people, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), is failing in its vital duties and the problems start at the top.

These failures led to Andy Malkinson, who was wrongfully imprisoned, spending a decade longer behind bars than necessary. Victor Nealon suffered a similar fate ten years earlier. The CCRC only grants new appeals in 2 percent of the cases it considers.

It is clear that the organisation lacks rigour, impartiality and a genuine commitment to overturning miscarriages of justice.

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