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Frame-up victim challenges compensation ruling
29 October 2009 --
SOUTH BELFAST man John Boyle is challenging the British Secretary of State over
his refusal to pay him compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
Boyle was framed by RUC detectives and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in
1977 but in April 2003 his conviction was quashed after it was investigated by
the Criminal Cases Review Commission CCRC).
Despite having his conviction overturned, the British Secretary of State refused
to pay compensation.
In 2008, three senior judges sitting in Belfast ruled that the Secretary of
State’s decision was incorrect but, almost two years later, the present
incumbent, Shaun Woodward, has yet to award Boyle compensation.
INTERVIEW NOTES REWRITTEN
John Boyle was arrested in 1976 and questioned by RUC detectives. During
interviews the south Belfast man refused to make any statements yet he was
charged with involvement in an IRA attack on the RUC.
During his 1977 trial the RUC claimed in court that Boyle admitted, verbally,
that he had been involved in the attack and he was sentenced by a Diplock
[non-jury] court judge to 12 years in prison. Boyle was eventually released from
the H-Blocks in 1986 and continued in his quest to prove his innocence.
In 1999, the CCRC, which investigates miscarriages of justice, found that RUC
interview notes had been rewritten by RUC detectives to include Boyle’s alleged
verbal admissions.
His conviction was subsequently quashed in April 2003 by the Court of Appeal.
NEW SUBMISSIONS
During last Friday’s hearing, aimed at forcing the Secretary of State to
compensate Boyle, the proceedings were dismissed by consent after it was
confirmed that one of the Secretary of State’s officials has asked Boyle’s legal
team to make further submissions in respect of his compensation bid.
Fearghal Shields, acting for Boyle, pointed out:
“The Secretary of State already had more than a year to reflect on the detail of
the Court of Appeal judgement and its implications. We can find no good reason
for a further significant delay in the communication of the minister’s decision
to our client.”
John Boyle also criticised the added delay:
“I have contested my innocence for more than 30 years and in 2003 it was proved
in the highest court in the land that those notes were rewritten and that I
spent nine years in jail for something I had nothing to do with.
“Even now, six years after my name was supposed to have been cleared, I still
have this cloud of guilt hanging over my head because the Secretary of State
will not accept that I was wrongly convicted.”
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