MPs and peers are expected to hear from three men who spent a total of 77 years in prison, had their convictions overturned in the last two years and haven’t received a penny in compensation – despite alarming failings by the police and the courts.
At meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Miscarriages of Justice, the group’s chair Kim Johnson MP will this afternoon call for urgent reform to address the ‘unconscionable cruelty’ of the current arrangements for miscarriage of justice compensation and the almost total lack of ongoing support for the wrongly imprisoned on release. ‘For the last 10 years, the victims of miscarriages of justice have been required to prove their innocence “beyond a reasonable doubt” in order to qualify for the minimal state support,’ comments Kim Johnson. ‘As a consequence of a law reform introduced in 2014 – which was legally illiterate and cruel – innocent people are denied the help that they urgently need.’
‘Every wrongly convicted person will tell you that their fight for justice is not about money. Yet, as one individual who was convicted at just 15 told us at one of our recent events: “They – the government – have made it about the money, not us.” This unconscionable cruelty must end. We cannot allow innocent people, harmed by the state, to be released out of prison without the support they need. They deserve proper compensation and the resources to rebuild their lives and make the most of what’s left of their lives.’
The meeting is due to be attended by Peter Sullivan, Justin Plummer and Oliver Campbell as well as their lawyers and representatives. Peter Sullivan was the victim of one of the longest miscarriages of justice in British history – his conviction for a 1987 rape and murder was overturned last year after the discovery of new DNA evidence. He spent 38 years in prison. It took the Criminal Cases Review Commission 16 years from his first application to uncover this evidence which puts another unknown perpetrator in the frame. He still has not received compensation.
‘It is simply outrageous for Peter to be left in this position,’ comments his solicitor Sarah Myatt. ‘Peter has already lost nearly 40 years of his freedom, then to be released into society as a vulnerable person, left with no financial or psychological support is simply unacceptable. The miscarriage of justice compensation scheme is long, arbitrary and totally inadequate for those who have been damaged by the state.’
Mr Sullivan, a vulnerable man with learning difficulties, recently told the BBC that he was beaten by police officers and ‘bullied’ into falsely admitting murder. He was initially refused a lawyer and denied the appropriate adult available to vulnerable people. He will be joined by Oliver Campbell who was brain damaged as a baby and consequently highly vulnerable.
Oliver Campbell also claims to have been bullied into making a false confession in the absence of his lawyer. His conviction for the 1991 murder of a newsagent was overturned in September 2024 – he spent 10 years in prison.
Justin Plummer spent 28 years in prison before having his conviction for murder overturned at the beginning of this summer. He had previously had his conviction overturned in July 2021 after his lawyers successfully challenged the controversial forensic evidence that convicted him. He was reconvicted in June 2023 following a trial which relied mainly upon a ‘cell confession’. Both discredited forensic and cell confession evidence featured in the Sullivan case. It was argued that Mr Plummer admitted to the murder to a cellmate who was a police informant and schizophrenic. That second conviction was overturned earlier this year in hearing that lasted less than eight minutes in which the court acknowledged that absolutely no preparation had been put in place for Justin Plummer’s release.
Peter Sullivan, Oliver Campbell and Justin Plummer are concerned about the manner in which their convictions were overturn by the Court of Appeal. In particular, the narrow grounds on which they were overturned which they believe failed to explain how they were wrongly convicted in the first place.
The Coalition government introduced the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 restricting the statutory compensation scheme for victims of miscarriages of justice so compensation payments are only made to those few people who could demonstrate their innocence ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. That has proved an almost impossible threshold short of DNA or CCTV evidence proving someone else committed the offence. As Kim Johnson explains: ‘The MoJ paid out less than £1.3m in compensation to victims of miscarriages of justice between 2020 and 2023 following a two-year period when not a single penny of compensation was paid out. To put that in context, between 2007 and 2009, a total of £20.8 million was paid out.’Ben Lake MP in a Westminster Hall Debate on March 20, 2025 said that the miscarriage of justice compensation scheme had a rejection rate of ‘more than 93%’.
If the three men were to pursue a civil claim against the police for their part in their wrongful conviction, their compensation claim would be put ‘on hold’ pending the outcome and any payout would be deducted from a successful compensation claim. Civil claims can take years to resolve.
’It’s a nonsensical arrangement that conveniently protects the legal system and the police from accountability,’ comments Glyn Maddocks KC, representing Oliver Campbell. ‘That combined with the extreme reluctance of the Court of Appeal to take a proper look at why these people have been wrongly convicted reveals the extent of the problem. How will we ever learn the lessons of the past in a system as blinkered as this.’
This was the second attack on compensation payments in recent years. Previously, the New Labour government abolished the far more generous ex gratia discretionary compensation scheme. The combined effect has had a calamitous impact upon miscarriage of justice payouts both in terms of the amount and the frequency.
