Content area
Full text
Ben Douglas-Jones, barrister, 5 Paper Buildings
News that Colin Stagg, the man wrongfully accused of the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common, received pound 706,000 in Home Office compensation met with a mixed response in the media, but is all the more timely given that Barry George, wrongfully convicted of killing Jill Dando, is also awaiting compensation.
Whatever George is likely to receive, the future is bleak for the wrongfully accused after then Home Secretary Charles Clarke decided in April 2006 to introduce a pound 500,000 cap on wrongful conviction compensation.
In 1994, Mr Justice Ognall excluded from Stagg's trial the 'honey trap' evidence of an undercover officer on the grounds of fairness, forcing the prosecution to offer no evidence. The judgment excoriated both the prosecution and the police: the operation was "highly disingenuous"; Stagg had been "deliberately deceived", "manipulated" and "positively...