Bed & Breakfast curtesy of HM

May 30th, 2007 § 0 comments

“It’s wrong to refer to the deductions as ‘bed and breakfast’ as they are made in respect of the costs an individual would have had to pay out of their net income on things such as a mortgage or rent.”

Said a Ministry Of Justice statement.

This refers to Warren Blackwell, who was imprisoned for three and a half years for a crime he didn’t commit and is about the compensation he is going to receive, thought to be about £100k, which will be deducted almost £7000 for expenses he would’ve saved on, stuff like rent and food, whilst in prison.

Did you notice the Doublespeak that goes with the Orwellian name of Ministry of Justice:

  • “…wrong to refer to the deductions as ‘Bed & Breakfast’
  • “…would have to pay…such things as a mortgage or rent”

    The Ministry of Justice has done an assessment and come to this figure, and will make the deduction because the compensation is “to put an individual back into the financial position they would have been in but for the miscarriage of justice, but not to a better position.”

    Now, I do not know Warren, so I don’t know whether he was employed or not or what his finances were when he went into prison, but I do know that he is married and has a 7 year old son. His wife has still had to pay a mortgage/rent, that doesn’t reduce when one less person is living there. How could the MoJ predict what Warrens employment status could’ve been during those 3.5 years of imprisonment? Three and a half years is a long time, most people do not know if they will still be with the same company in three and a half years time, or unemployed, etc so how the bloody hell is the Govt. supposed to know?

    Mr Blackwell couldn’t have been in prison, and yet he is having to reimburse the Govt. for his stay. The people who put themselves in prison by committing crimes do not have to pay a thing. If that is the way the Govt. wants to go, why not introduce two new schemes, Pay as You Go for occasional sinners, who will have a short stay every few years and Pay Monthly for the biggies that do years.

    There is also no mention of anything to compensate Warren for missing out on three and a half years of his son growing up, who was 3 when Warren went into prison, and is now 7. Those years can never be replaced or returned and children change so quickly at that age that money cannot ever help to undo the loss, but it would be a gesture.

    On a related note, Mr Blackwells accuser remains anonymous and has a history of falsely accusing men:

  • Has made at least five other fake allegations of sexual and physical assault to police in three separate forces.
  • Was married twice and made false allegations against both husbands – one of whom was a policeman.
  • Once accused her own father of sexual assault, but police concluded she had made it up.
  • Accused a boy of rape when she was a teenager, only for a doctor to discover she was still a virgin.
  • The CCRC concluded that in the case of Mr Blackwell, she had “lied about the assault and was not attacked at all, her injuries being self-inflicted”.

    Whilst this lady obviously has some mental problems, and Warrens has had a (relatively) good outcome, it is often not the case and the man has his life ruined and the woman remains anonymous.

    Related Post: Obsolete – Injustice Multiplied Part Two

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