Ministers to prioritise compensation bid by man wrongly jailed for 38 years
The Government has pledged to prioritise any bid for compensation by a man who spent 38 years in prison after wrongly being convicted of murder.
Speaking in Parliament, justice minister Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede said he would 'encourage' Peter Sullivan, 68, to seek a payout.
The gross miscarriage of justice has again fuelled criticism of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which is already under fire over its handling of the case of Andrew Malkinson, who served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.
Responding to warnings that the independent body which investigates potential miscarriages of justice was 'unravelling quickly', Lord Ponsonby said an interim chair had been identified with an announcement to be made 'imminently'.
The previous chairwoman Helen Pitcher resigned in January over the controversy sparked by Mr Malkinson's case, claiming she had been scapegoated.
Mr Sullivan, who to date has spent more of his life in prison than free, finally had his name cleared last week after decades protesting his innocence.
Crucial DNA evidence was finally unearthed due to scientific advances last year, showing it was another unknown man who raped and murdered 21-year-old Diane Sindall in 1986.
Victims of miscarriages of justice can apply to a government compensation scheme.
Mr Malkinson was given a six-figure payment in February this year after delays left him struggling to survive financially and turning to food banks.
Independent crossbencher Baroness Deech, a former chairwoman of the Bar Standards Board and a member of the Law Commission, said: 'Does it not add insult to injury that after a person has wasted the whole of their life in jail, that they don't get immediate compensation as soon as they are released?'
Responding, Lord Ponsonby said: 'We would encourage Mr Sullivan to make an application to the miscarriages of justice application service, and we will prioritise his application because of the length of the prison sentence.'
Tory peer Lord Garnier, who previously served as solicitor general, stressed the urgent need to appoint a chair of the CCRC 'not in the near future, but today'.
He said: 'It's unravelling. It's unravelling quickly and there will be more Malkinsons, there will be more cases of that hideous nature, unless the Government really grabs hold of this thing and takes charge.'
Lord Ponsonby said: 'The objective is to have an interim chair for 18 months to review the operations of the CCRC.
'What I can say is an individual has been identified and is going through the approvals process, so the announcement will be made imminently.'
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