Wrongfully imprisoned men in court battle for compensation
♦ A man who spent more than seven years in prison as a teenager in a miscarriage of justice is fighting for compensation as he pleads to be seen as “innocent until proven guilty”.
Lawyers for Sam Hallam and Victor Nealon, who served 17 years in jail in a similar case, have taken their legal battle to the Supreme Court.
Mr Hallam, who was convicted of murder, and Mr Nealon, who was found guilty of attempted rape, both had applications for compensation rejected by the Justice Secretary. Lawyers argued on their behalf that the Criminal Justice Act 1988, which governs compensation payments, was amended in 2014 in a way that violated the European Convention on Human Rights – the presumption of innocence – because it required a person seeking an award to prove they were innocent.
Their human rights challenges are now being considered by seven Supreme Court justices, headed by the court’s president Lady Hale, who began hearing the case in London yesterday.