SUB-HEADING: "Andrew Malkinson served 17 years behind bars for a rape he didn't commit."
GIST: "Andrew Malkinson, who served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, has received part of a compensation payment, his lawyer said.
The 59-year-old had his conviction quashed in 2023 after years protesting his innocence, but has waited since then for compensation.
Mr Malkinson was wrongly convicted in 2004 and chances to free him were repeatedly missed, leading to one of the worst miscarriages of justice in UK legal history.
In a statement on Wednesday, Toby Wilton, from Hickman and Rose, welcomed the payment, but said the £1 million cap on compensation payouts should be lifted.
This is currently the maximum amount that can be paid to victims of miscarriages of justice who are wrongly jailed for at least 10 years.
He said: "The arbitrary and unfair compensation cap should, at the very least, increase with inflation in just the same way that other compensation in the English legal system, and that - say - MPs' salaries increase over time.
"Andy Malkinson's life was shattered when he was sent to prison for more than 17 years for a crime he did not commit. He is only now starting to rebuild it.
"The Government should lift the current cap on compensation, and end the twisted quirk that whilst awards under other compensation schemes are excluded from assessment for benefits, Andy now faces the risk of losing his social housing flat just because he has been awarded this money."
It was previously reported that Mr Malkinson was struggling to survive on benefits and had to turn to food banks.
He told the Guardian that he would spend some of the money - said to be a significant six-figure amount - on a trip to Australia to see his half-sister for the first time since 1990.
He said: "It's been a mighty struggle, because I could hardly pay for my rent and food ... So I'm very pleased now that I'm financially independent and I've got the freedom I craved whilst in prison."
Mr Malkinson was supported by legal charity Appeal in his attempts to have his case reviewed by miscarriage of justice body the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Two of his applications in 2009 and 2020 were rejected, before Appeal commissioned fresh DNA tests that eventually led to his release.
It later emerged that he could have been freed a decade earlier if the similarities between his case and another wrongful conviction, that of a man called Victor Nealon, had been spotted and acted upon."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
