Victim of false rape claim must pay £12,500 for bed and board in jail
A man wrongly jailed when a woman cried rape has failed to prevent being charged ¬¨¬£12,500 for his “board and lodging” while in prison. Warren Blackwell, 38, spent three years in jail as a convicted sex attacker until his ‘victim’ was unmasked as a fantasist. It was revealed he has been awarded ¬¨¬£252,500 compensation for his lost years - but minus the estimated cost of his food and accommodation while behind bars. Mr Blackwell said he had failed to stop the money being siphoned off after his lawyer told him there was little to be done about it. The father-of-two, said: “It’s the principle of the thing. They slam you in jail for three years and four months, brand you a sex attacker, leave your family to cope without you, then turn around and say sorry but demand ¬¨¬£12,500 for living expenses incurred during your time inside…. “I tried to fight against it but my solicitor says the only hope of overturning the decision would be to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. I would probably use up all the compensation money on legal fees if I did that.”
OK, so let me see if I have this straight. Warren Blackwell is wrongly accused and subsequently convicted of rape. Then, after being incarcerated for three years and being deprived of his rights and freedoms, he’s released…and though he’s compensated for the “OOPS! Our bad….”, the government has the gall to bill him for room and board? WTF? As if the initial insult of being imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit wasn’t degrading enough, now the British Government thinks it appropriate to BILL Blackwell for room and board? It’s not as if Blackwell was hanging out in a hotel in Bristol for three years, y’all. No, he was imprisoned, deprived of his freedom and his rights by the government for three years. Surely someone ought to be able to remove their anterior from their posterior long enough to realize that billing Blackwell for room and board only adds insult to injury.
Or perhaps that’s the whole point of this exercise?
