How much compensation should be paid to someone whose life is blighted after being wrongly accused or even convicted and jailed for murder?
Article in Times Online here
Gemma Capon, 20, falsely accused Graham Tysoe of forcing his way into her home and sexually assaulting her on the living room sofa.
Today she was sentenced to a 12-week suspended prison sentence, to the anger of the victim and his family.
Mr Tysoe said: "I hate her. I don't think she realises what she's done."
Mum Sharon, 42, added: "She should have been put inside. It was vicious and vindictive and the sentence has made a mockery out of the justice system. It sends the message that false accusers can get away with it."
Mr Tysoe, a 20-year-old pub worker, was arrested in front of work colleagues and held for 23-and-a-half hours after Capon made the allegation on June 5.
Southend Magistrates Court heard how he was subjected to intrusive forensic examinations during the investigation.
More Daily Telegraph
Every second Thursday, John Pinnington follows the same, rather bleak routine.
After breakfast, he heads to his local JobCentre, where he collects his dole money for the week ahead.
It is a paltry sum, a mere fraction of what he used to earn when he was the respected deputy headmaster of an Oxfordshire college for young adults with learning difficulties.He and his wife Rosie no longer enjoy the comforts of the lifestyle they once led.
Living under a shadow: John Pinnington with his wife Rosie
They have to rely on the goodwill of friends with holiday homes in the UK when they need a break, and can barely afford to keep their neat three-bedroom terrace house in the tranquil Oxfordshire village of Benson.
Without his £35,0000-a-year income, they have been forced to resort to selling off various family possessions in order to pay their mortgage.
For John's once-excellent career prospects have been destroyed because of a series of unfounded and spurious indecent assault claims made by three young adults in his care.
Despite police investigations into each of the claims, none of the allegations has resulted in criminal charges or conviction but, despite this, they remain on his teaching record - preventing him from securing another job.
Earlier this month, John, 59, lost a High Court battle to clear his name, despite the judge admitting the 'serious weaknesses' in the allegations.
In a judgment which will affect thousands of carers in charge of children and young adults in Britain, the judge ruled that future employers should always be made aware of such allegations, however 'weak and unreliable' they were.
The case is a test of tough new vetting laws introduced after the infamous murders of two Soham schoolgirls in 2002.
more: Daily Mail
A social worker has been cleared of misconduct charges following a three-day hearing before a General Social Care Council committee in London this week.
Mabel Rose was accused of asking a six-year-old child to show her a scratch near her genital area during a child protection interview - a charge she denied.
more
A Westy man has won a battle against a conviction of indecent assault that has lasted for almost four years.
David Thackeray was found guilty of an attack on a 13-year-old girl in December 2004 – but the Court of Appeal in London has now cleared his name.
Mr Thackeray, aged 46, was jailed for one year following his conviction at Warrington Crown Court and made to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.
But after a marathon legal battle he has won the right to clear his name.
The Crown Prosecution Service did not offer any evidence after his legal team, led by John Banasko, presented new evidence before the court.
The court heard that the 13-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has made up false rape allegations before – one just months after those made against Mr Thackeray.
An initial appeal was lost in March 2005 but now, three years after his release and more than four since the false allegations, Mr Thackeray is a free man.
He said the whole episode has been a massive strain but was delighted to clear his name.
He added: “I had people coming up to me in the street, shouting at me.
“But my family and neighbours really stood by me.
“I want to thank everyone for their support throughout this whole situation.
“And I want to thank my legal team for all their hard work. Mr Banasko has put in such a lot of hard work.”
The full summary of the Appeal Court hearing, held in June, is due later this month.
Source: This is Cheshire
A woman was jailed yesterday after her false claim of rape resulted in an innocent stranger being arrested.
In an attempt to make her family feel guilty following an argument, Kerry Saunders invented a story that she had been sexually assaulted after a night out.
She was overheard making the allegation by a passing police community support officer.
Instead of admitting it was just a story, she told the officer that her attacker was a black man driving a blue car.
Within hours, Oladepo Otesile, a student, was picked up by police near the scene of the alleged attack.
He was held in a cell for 22 hours, where he was interviewed under caution and given an intimate forensic examination. Samples of his DNA and fingerprints were also taken.
Only after Mr Otesile was bailed to return for an identity parade did his 'victim' contact police to admit the allegations were false.
Sentencing 26-year-old Saunders to a year in prison after she pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice, Judge Michael Brooke said 'it was something she brought on herself'.
'She is not a baby, she could have said at any time it was not true and she had been hysterical,' he added.
The judge also said that Mr Otesile had been put through an unnecessary ordeal.
The false claims not only deprived him of his liberty, but cost the police £4,500 in wasted time, Basildon Crown Court in Essex heard.
Judge Brooke said: 'A total stranger found himself locked up for 22 hours having samples taken, he was interviewed under caution and accused of the most serious of crimes - stranger rape in a public place. He must have passed an absolutely ghastly time.'
As Saunders sobbed in the dock, he added: 'She knew very well where things were going and things ratcheted up and she did nothing to stop it.'
The allegation was made in the early hours of December 2 last year when Saunders was out celebrating a birthday with family and friends.
After a row broke out in the limousine the group was sharing, the driver dumped her on the A13 in Purfleet, Essex.
Minutes later, she called her family and told them she had been raped - an attempt to make them feel bad.
Barry Hargreaves, prosecuting, said: 'An offduty PCSO saw her by the side of the road in a distressed state and she said she had been attacked in the street by an unknown assailant and had been dumped by his car.
'Police were called and told she had been claiming she had been raped. The description she gave was of her attacker being black and driving a blue car.'
Of Mr Otesile, he added: 'The victim is black, and happened to have a blue car which was spotted by police in the area where the alleged rape took place.
'It fitted the description of the car and he fitted the description of the attacker and he was arrested. He then spent 22 hours in custody where Miss Saunders still maintained the allegation that she had been raped.'
After more than a day had passed, Saunders, from Ilford in Essex, contacted police and admitted the claims were false.
Before the incident, Mr Otesile, of Purfleet, had never been arrested before. Describing him as a man of good character, Mr Hargreaves added: 'The whole experience was horrible and very frightening, especially as he knew he had not done anything wrong.'
The court heard that Saunders had a drugs problem and had been taking crack cocaine on and off since she was 17. She had been drinking on the night of the attack.
In mitigation, her lawyer said she was ' emotionally immature' and the lies were a ' kneejerk reaction to get attention from her family' which spiralled out of control.
Almost a quarter of teachers are worried about "hidden" surveillance cameras in their schools, according to research published by a teachers union, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
The survey of nearly 250 primary and secondary school teachers found that 84.6 per cent have closed-circuit television (CCTV) in their school and although more than half said it made them feel safer, 23.4 per cent were concerned about cameras hidden in school buildings.
The teachers' are worried that the cameras amount to an invasion of privacy and can also be a distraction to education.
Nearly all those questioned , 97.6 per cent, said CCTV was primarily used for security purposes, and half said it was used for monitoring pupil behaviour and 72 per cent said it was used to monitor and control vandalism.
However, nearly two thirds said they did not know what security measures their school had for CCTV cameras - in terms of storing the data and restricting its use and half of teachers admitted would behave differently if they knew that CCTV was operating in classroom they were teaching in.
Only 27 per cent of teachers said they thought pupils' behaviour changed in the presence of cameras.
The findings revealed the general attitude was that while CCTV has its benefits, classroom surveillance was an invasion of privacy and disrupted education.
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of ATL, said: "No one really knows enough about the use of CCTV in schools - it's a very new issue. We have set up a working group to look into the use of CCTV and produce ATL guidelines on best practice for schools and colleges throughout the UK.
"Certainly we would want staff to be involved in decisions about the use of CCTV in schools, and strict safeguards for its use. Although surveillance in schools can have some positive outcomes, such as discouraging vandalism and violence, we think there are some instances where it should be strictly controlled."
Tonia Matthews, a teacher at Trinity secondary school in West Berkshire, said: "Students feel secure to know if there has been an incident, such as bullying. We can then go back and look what happened."
The survey questioned 249 ATL members working in primary and secondary schools across the UK during June 2008.
Source: Daily Telegraph
Note:
Goodman's co-authors include Donna Shestowsky, acting professor of law at UC Davis, and doctoral students Stephanie Block, Jennifer Schaaf and Daisy Segovia.
Goodman was among the first researchers to undertake academic study of children's eyewitness accounts. She is the author of three books and more than 170 scientific articles in the field; some have been cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions. She is the 2008 recipient of the American Psychological Association's Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contributions to Developmental Psychology. She will deliver the invited Urie Bronfenbrenner address summarizing her life's work at at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
The man who was wrongly accused of murdering Rachel Nickell in London in 1992 has won £706,000 in compensation.
Ms Nickell, 23, was stabbed 49 times in a frenzied attack on Wimbledon Common in front of her two-year-old son.
Colin Stagg, 44, who was cleared of the killing in 1994, said: "What pleases me even more than the money is that this is effectively a public apology."
Robert Napper, 41, was charged with the former model's murder in November last year and is awaiting trial.
Mr Stagg's lawyer Alex Tribick said the payout from the Home Office was set by an independent assessor, Lord Brennan.
Mr Stagg, of Roehampton, south-west London, was acquitted of the murder when the judge threw out the case on the grounds police had used a "honey trap" plot to encourage him to confess ..... (more)
According to a report By Wendy Barlow in the Lancashire Telegraph on 12th August a Rossendale headteacher's ex-partner has been cleared of cleared of bid to pervert justice.
The ex-partner of a Ramsbottom primary school head from Bacup accused of a revenge claim that the teacher had child porn on his computer, has been cleared.
Andrew Collis, 42, was yesterday acquitted of attempting to pervert the course of justice in January after the prosecution offered no evidence at Burnley Crown Court.
The defendant, now of Bishop Tachbrook, Leamington Spa, who had denied the charge, was discharged from the dock by Judge Christopher Cornwall.
The defendant has no criminal convictions.
Mr Collis had been accused of making a false allegation to police about Damian Marsh, out of spite after their relationship ended.
The court was told even if he did make the claim out of spite, he had believed Mr Marsh, headteacher at St Andrew’s CE School, had indecent images of children on his computer.
Francis McEntee told the court Mr Collis had tried to kill himself after the claim and had written a letter, apologising and saying he had been driven to make a serious false allegation out of spite.
Mr McEntee said the shadow of Mr Marsh’s computer hard drive was examined and more than 30,000 images were found.
The prosecutor added even if Mr Collis had been driven by spite he thought he had a basis for his allegation.
Mr Marsh, of Bacup, who was arrested but later released without charge, is not facing prosecution over any child porn allegations.
After the hearing Mr Collis said he now wanted to get on with the rest of his life.
Bury Council said that an investigation conducted after Mr Collis’s allegation to police in January had found that there was no evidence of illegal activities by Mr Marsh, who had initially been suspended from his role.
The council said in a statement: “The investigating team had full access to police information and other relevant information.
“The investigation concluded that there was no evidence of any child protection concerns in relation to Mr Marsh in his role as headteacher of St Andrew’s Primary School.
“The investigating team was satisfied that there was no evidence of any illegal activities, and that Mr Marsh’s personal life did not have a negative impact on his ability to undertake his professional role.
“Following this investigation the school governing body were satisfied there were no grounds for any further action and the suspension of Mr Marsh was consequently lifted.
“A statement from the Diocese of Manchester states that this is a private matter.
"The Governors and the Diocese continue to have full confidence in the headteacher.”
A Lancashire police spokesman said no images of child pornography were discovered during investigations into the matter.
Acknowledgement:
According to a report in the Independent by Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent a grieving mother says the inclusion of her innocent son's genetic details on the DNA national database, after a woman at a train station falsely accused him of flashing, drove him to suicide.
Robert Chong was arrested by an off-duty policeman at Waterloo station in May, handcuffed, held and forced to provide a DNA sample, after the woman – who subsequently disappeared, and whom police acknowledge was a problem complainer – accused him of exposing himself to her. A cursory check of CCTV tapes would have proved his innocence, and that his only interaction with the woman was when she swore at him on the station concourse.
Mr Chong, a 41-year-old wood machinist from Hendon, north London, was "traumatised" by the event, and complained to his mother that he felt criminalised. He worried that his arrest and his inclusion on the DNA database would scupper his hopes of moving to the United States or Australia to work.
He was released on police bail with an instruction to return in July. The police said they sent him a letter telling him they were dropping the case – but it never arrived. He became moody and distant. "He wasn't eating, he wasn't sleeping," said his mother, Josephine. "He told me: 'I'm on the criminal database now, I have got a record'. He said it was for life. He wasn't a criminal. Now I want him taken off the database."
She saw him alive for the last time on the morning of 11 July, when he put his head around her bedroom door and said goodbye. She went out later and returned to find a note from him on her bed, telling her: "I can't face life any more." She raised the alarm and a few hours later received the news that his body had been found hanging from a tree at a secluded spot in a nearby park.
Mrs Chong criticised the Government last night: "These people have to realise that not everybody who is put on the database is thick-skinned enough to deal with it. Robert thought he was being branded a criminal for absolutely nothing."
She added: "The database should be for criminals, not for the innocent. You are meant to be innocent until proven guilty in this country."
An inquest has been set for November, with coroners' officers asking police for information about Mr Chong's arrest. The British Transport Police, which is responsible for security at railways stations, declined to comment on the case.
Anyone picked up for an arrestable offence now has to provide a sample, which stays on record indefinitely, regardless of whether they are either charged or convicted.
More than four million DNA profiles are now contained on the national database, far more than in any other country.
Acknowledgement:
A Westy man has won a battle against a conviction of indecent assault that has lasted for almost four years.
David Thackeray was found guilty of an attack on a 13-year-old girl in December 2004 – but the Court of Appeal in London has now cleared his name.
Mr Thackeray, aged 46, was jailed for one year following his conviction at Warrington Crown Court and made to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.
But after a marathon legal battle he has won the right to clear his name.
The Crown Prosecution Service did not offer any evidence after his legal team, led by John Banasko, presented new evidence before the court.
The court heard that the 13-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has made up false rape allegations before – one just months after those made against Mr Thackeray.
An initial appeal was lost in March 2005 but now, three years after his release and more than four since the false allegations, Mr Thackeray is a free man.
He said the whole episode has been a massive strain but was delighted to clear his name.
He added: “I had people coming up to me in the street, shouting at me.
“But my family and neighbours really stood by me.
“I want to thank everyone for their support throughout this whole situation.
“And I want to thank my legal team for all their hard work. Mr Banasko has put in such a lot of hard work.”
The full summary of the Appeal Court hearing, held in June, is due later this month.
Source: Warrington Guardian
According to an article on Friday, 8th August 2008 in the Independent (here) by Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent a mother claims her son killed himself he was falsely accused and a DNA profile was taken.
A grieving mother says the inclusion of her innocent son's genetic details on the DNA national database, after a woman at a train station falsely accused him of flashing, drove him to suicide.
Robert Chong was arrested by an off-duty policeman at Waterloo station in May, handcuffed, held and forced to provide a DNA sample, after the woman – who subsequently disappeared, and whom police acknowledge was a problem complainer – accused him of exposing himself to her. A cursory check of CCTV tapes would have proved his innocence, and that his only interaction with the woman was when she swore at him on the station concourse.
Mr Chong, a 41-year-old wood machinist from Hendon, north London, was "traumatised" by the event, and complained to his mother that he felt criminalised. He worried that his arrest and his inclusion on the DNA database would scupper his hopes of moving to the United States or Australia to work.
He was released on police bail with an instruction to return in July. The police said they sent him a letter telling him they were dropping the case – but it never arrived. He became moody and distant. "He wasn't eating, he wasn't sleeping," said his mother, Josephine. "He told me: 'I'm on the criminal database now, I have got a record'. He said it was for life. He wasn't a criminal. Now I want him taken off the database."
She saw him alive for the last time on the morning of 11 July, when he put his head around her bedroom door and said goodbye. She went out later and returned to find a note from him on her bed, telling her: "I can't face life any more." She raised the alarm and a few hours later received the news that his body had been found hanging from a tree at a secluded spot in a nearby park.
Mrs Chong criticised the Government last night: "These people have to realise that not everybody who is put on the database is thick-skinned enough to deal with it. Robert thought he was being branded a criminal for absolutely nothing."
She added: "The database should be for criminals, not for the innocent. You are meant to be innocent until proven guilty in this country."
An inquest has been set for November, with coroners' officers asking police for information about Mr Chong's arrest. The British Transport Police, which is responsible for security at railways stations, declined to comment on the case.
Anyone picked up for an arrestable offence now has to provide a sample, which stays on record indefinitely, regardless of whether they are either charged or convicted.
More than four million DNA profiles are now contained on the national database, far more than in any other country.
Not Guilty
Posted by News Editor
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
A Christian Brother has been acquitted, by direction of Judge Tony Hunt, of sexually assaulting boys 40 years ago in a Galway industrial school.
Judge Hunt withdrew all 35 charges from the jury on day 11 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
His decision to direct that not guilty verdicts be returned on all the charges came following submissions by defence counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC (with Mr Philip Rhan BL).
The 72-year-old accused had pleaded not guilty to the 35 counts of indecently assaulting six boys between 1967 and 1973 when they were residents at the school.
Source: Breaking News
Another report adds
Judge: 'Inconsistencies' lead to Christian Brother's acquittal
An ex-Christian Brother has been acquitted by direction of Judge Tony Hunt of sexually assaulting boys some 40 years ago in a Galway industrial school.
Judge Hunt withdrew all 35 charges from the jury on day 11 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
The 72-year-old accused had pleaded not guilty to the 35 counts of indecently assaulting six boys between 1967 and 1973 when they were residents at the school.
Judge Hunt thanked the jury of five men and five women for their patience and attention in the case and told them that there was significant inconsistency between the evidence given by witnesses in the trial and the statements they made to gardaí and inconsistencies between some witnesses and documentary evidence.
He said he felt that in those circumstances the jury, properly charged by the judge, would not be able to safely convict beyond a reasonable doubt.
Judge Hunt said there was "no doubt that many of the men in this case have unhappy lives" but told the jury a case cannot be decided on sympathy.
His decision to direct that not guilty verdicts be returned on all the charges came following several days of legal submissions from defence counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC (with Mr Philip Rhan BL) and prosecuting counsel, Mr Eanna Mulloy SC (with Mr Fergal Foley BL).
The Children and Young Persons Bill introduced by Lord Adonis, Department for Children, Schools and Families and Ed Balls, Department for Children, Schools and Families is currently passing through the House of Lords.
Updates on the progress of the bill, together with links to debates and amendments, can be found on the Parliament website here
The August edition of the SAFARI Newsletter has just been published. In this edition:-
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Hampshire teenager’s name cleared after five year nightmare;
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Parole awarded to SAFARI reader despite Probation recommending against it because of the lack of ‘offence-related work’;
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Erin Casson convicted for making false rape allegation
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False accuser Jenna Lindsay’s 60-day prison sentence reduced to two year probation order;
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Gemma Capon pleads guilt to wasting police time after making false allegation;
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Paul Drane’s GBH conviction quashed;
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Isobel Thompson and Iain Campbell – suspended sentence for perverting the course of justice;
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Stuart Waby given Community Order for making false allegation;
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Criminal Records Bureau falsely accused hundreds of people; SAFARI attends Parole Board’s July 2008 Stakeholders meeting;
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SAFARI meets with Shadow Minister for Justice, Edward Garnier MP; and more
A Tory parliamentary candidate who bombarded his Liberal Democrat rival with hate mail and vandalised the party's Watford headquarters was facing jail today after admitting more than 70 offences of criminal damage and harassment.
Ian Oakley, 31, of West Drayton, northwest London, admitted mounting a two-year hate campaign against Sal Brinton, who he considered his main rival to defeat the sitting Labour MP.
Oakley admitted making silent phone calls to her home and sending lesbian magazines and letters addressed to The candidate, who resigned from the Conservative Party after his activities were discovered, also slashed tyres and wrecked shutters at the party's local offices.
His campaign of harassment was motivated by a “desire to change the political landscape in Watford" after he was chosen to be Tory candidate in 2006, St Albans Magistrates Court heard.
Donna Rayner, for the prosection, said he targeted Ms Brinton because he regarded her as his "main rival" to unseat Claire Ward, who had retained the seat for Labour in 2005.
“Mrs Brinton had lesbian magazines sent to her home address and her work address," she said. ....
...... His extraordinary campaign later broadened to include anyone associated with the Watford Lib Dems. From February to May this year, Oakley hounded Russell Wilson, a Watford borough councillor, with letters accusing him of paedophilia and daubed graffiti on his home branding him a "scum scum perv".
“Letters were in fact sent to his neighbours stating he was a member of a child-abuse ring,” Ms Rayner said. .......
....... Barry Northrop, the magistrates' chairman, adjourned sentencing until September 16 for reports, including psychological reports, to be prepared.
He told Oakley: “The nature of this abuse to the victims was particularly offensive.
“Both the harassment and the criminal damage offences were targeted very often to homes of the individuals involved and were vindictive in nature."
He added: “We cannot ignore the stated intent to interfere with the democratic process.
“We do have to say that we regard the charges and the offences against you as to be very, very serious indeed - so serious that custody would be an option."
Speaking outside the court, Mr Watkin, 60 years, a Watford Borough Councillor for the Nascot ward who was targeted by Oakley for more than a year, spoke of the distress caused to himself and his family.
The former church warden said Oakley had sent his neighbours letters containing the names of children he was supposed to have abused and the dates on which he was allegedly convicted.
“I was upset, hurt and damaged by this but the biggest impact was on my family," he said. “I have two grown-up daughters and they were very upset that their father was being accused of these things."
Mr Watkin added: “He’s got too near my family in a way no-one else has, and I just want to see justice done when he is sentenced.”
The Liberal Democrats said they were pleased Oakley had been brought to justice, called on David Cameron to launch an inquiry into the "vile campaign."
Oakley was granted bail until sentencing, on the condition he does not contact a list of people named by the court.
Source: Times (edited)
Barry George has been found not guilty of murdering BBC television presenter Jill Dando outside her London home.
See reports in:-
BBC
ITV
Times
Guardian
Indeperndent
Barry George will find it difficult to adjust to life after eight years in prison, a man who was also wrongly convicted of murder has predicted.
Michael O'Brien, 40, who served 11 years for the 1987 killing of a Cardiff newsagent, said the impact of such an experience was "tremendous".
He said he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.
Compensation would not help Mr George, 48, understand why he was convicted of killing presenter Jill Dando, he added.
On Friday, Mr George was cleared after an Old Bailey retrial of murdering Miss Dando outside her London home in 1999.
The murder convictions of Mr O'Brien and two other men were quashed by the Court of Appeal in December 1999.
Mr O'Brien told the BBC his £670,000 compensation was not "enough for what I went through and what they give Barry George won't be enough either".
He added: "I think he is going to find it difficult to come to terms that he went to prison in the first place.
"He is going to be very angry that he did and he'll want people [held] responsible for this miscarriage - some sort of redress - not just compensation."
Mr O'Brien, who lives in Cardiff and now works to help other victims of miscarriages of justice, said he had to wait eight years before receiving his compensation from the government.
But he remains bitter that the House of Lords ruled the cost of board and lodgings could be deducted from any payment made to wrongfully-convicted prisoners - in his instance £37,500.
Mr O'Brien said his time in prison had a "tremendous effect" on his life.
"I am very pleased that Barry George is free because I know the suffering he is going through," he said.
He said it was also "really difficult" having to deal with personal issues while facing a miscarriage of justice.
Mr O'Brien's father and daughter died while he was in prison and his marriage broke down.
In his case, he also wished there was more support from the authorities on release.
He had to seek his own psychiatric help.
"The problem we had was when we actually came out of prison because when we came out there was no help for us whatsoever," he said.
"I was released with just £44 in my pocket and told to just get on with my life as if nothing had happened."
Source: BBC
In what will have resonance among FACT cases the barrister for Barry George, cleared of killing presenter Jill Dando, has warned that huge publicity can distort investigations into high-profile cases.
William Clegg QC said the media pressure on the authorities to find the perpetrator could affect the police's objectivity.
Mr George, 48, was cleared on Friday of murdering Miss Dando, 37, on the doorstep of her London home in 1999.
The Crown Prosecution Service has said it was right to take the case to court.
Mr Clegg told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "All these cases that attract widespread publicity put huge pressure on the police and the prosecuting authorities to try to find the perpetrator and I sometimes feel that that pressure distorts the objectivity that would otherwise be present, were the publicity to be absent."
Mr Clegg was also involved in the case of Colin Stagg, who was cleared of the 1992 murder of Rachel Nickell.
He said there were lessons to be learned from the Dando case.
"In considering a case of this complexity the police and those responsible for the prosecution need to keep an open mind as far as possible as to who is responsible.... (more)
Source: BBC
The following article by Fiona Davidson appeared in The Scotman on 31st July 2008
The former depute head of a school attached to a secure unit for vulnerable young people at the centre of allegations of sexual, physical and emotional abuse, has won his unfair dismissal claim.
An employment tribunal ruled Glasgow City Council had not carried out sufficient investigation into allegations of "gross misconduct" when they took the decision to sack Chris Johnson, 54, in July 2005.
The dismissal was related to alleged management failings and there was no suggestion he had taken part in any alleged abuses of young people in his care, the tribunal was told.
In its written judgment, the tribunal criticised John Legg, a former social work manager, who, after hearing evidence for three days, took just half an hour to decide Mr Johnson should be dismissed from his post at Kerelaw School in Ayrshire.
They said Mr Johnson of Portencross, Ayrshire, had not been given enough time to prepare his defence and that allegations concerning a variety of failings had not been specific.
The tribunal also noted that Mr Johnson's computer hard drive had been wiped clean and his laptop lost, but there was no evidence to show whether that had happened before or after he was denied access to them.
In 2006, two men were found guilty of physically and sexually abusing children in their care at Kerelaw. Matthew George, 56, an art teacher, was jailed for ten years at the High Court in Edinburgh for a "horrifying catalogue" of offences.
John Muldoon, 53, a residential care worker, was sentenced to two and a half years in jail.
Problems at the unit came to light in April 2004, when the Care Commission produced a critical report and Glasgow City Council was alerted to abuse claims. The school and the secure unit were subsequently closed.
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