Wrongly jailed man wins appeal

A man who wrongly spent nine years in jail on terrorism charges has moved closer to winning compensation.

John Boyle, 50, was jailed for 12 years in 1977. The Belfast man was released in 1986 after his case was reviewed.

His conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in April 2003 when scientific analysis revealed that notes of one of his interviews had been rewritten.

The secretary of state has refused to award compensation but the Appeal Court has found grounds to support his case.

Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr ruled that the rewritten police notes met the serious default threshold for qualifying for the government's ex gratia compensation scheme for those wrongly convicted.

However, Sir Brian added that allowing Mr Boyle's appeal did not inevitably mean he was entitled to a payment.

Mr Boyle was jailed for his alleged part in an IRA attempt to murder a policeman.

'Serious default'

Another member of the three-judge Court of Appeal panel, Lord Justice Campbell, backed Sir Brian's verdict.

He said: "I consider that there was serious default on the part of the officers in maintaining at the trial that the notes were not rewritten."

The third judge hearing the case, Lord Justice Girvan, ruled that Mr Boyle was entitled to compensation under the terms of the Criminal Justice Act.

"The appellant served a lengthy prison sentence on foot of a conviction based on tainted evidence and the suppression of relevant information," he said.

"He suffered serious prejudice, namely many years in prison, as a result of a failure in the process."

Mr Boyle was appealing against the dismissal of a judicial review of the secretary of state's decision.