Last Straw

On 18 March 2009 Sean Hodg­son walked free after his con­vic­tion was quashed, hav­ing spent 27 years in prison.

… when com­pens­a­tion is finally paid out, the gov­ern­ment, unbe­liev­ably, docks room and board, or “saved liv­ing expenses” cal­cu­lated on the basis of what a frugal per­son might have spent on their own upkeep if they were free. “As if you vol­un­tar­ily popped into the local prison,” says Young, con­temp­tu­ously. “Yes, it would have cost them some­thing to live — but you’ve taken their liberty. If you can afford £50bn to bail out a bank you can afford to com­pensate someone for 27 years in prison.” McManus estim­ates that Hodg­son will pay a min­imum of £100,000 for the priv­ilege. The appeal was paid for by legal aid, but it does not cover the pro­cess of apply­ing for com­pens­a­tion. And so he will have to pay legal fees too.

“It’s like [the state is] pro­ject­ing some of the respons­ib­il­ity back on to the indi­vidual,” says Turn­bull. “As if he should have made a bet­ter job of prov­ing his own inno­cence and not allowed the sys­tem to make the mis­take it did. It’s like accus­ing a rape vic­tim of being pro­voc­at­ive, spread­ing the respons­ib­il­ity bey­ond those who should be tak­ing it. He should have been set free imme­di­ately, com­pensated mag­ni­fi­cently and put through a sys­tem to restore him to as near his nor­mal self as pos­sible, and yet none of things are happening.”