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Sam Hallam and Victor Nealon denied compensation | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Two men who served long sentences before their convictions were overturned have lost High Court actions in their fight for compensation. | |
Sam Hallam, from London, served more than seven years for murder, while Victor Nealon, from Worcestershire, served 17 years for attempted rape. | |
Both men were set free after appeal judges ruled that fresh evidence made their convictions unsafe. | |
But judges, sitting in London, dismissed their compensation cases. | |
Victor Nealon's lawyer said the judgment was "wrong legally and morally" and confirmed he would appeal. | |
The pair asked two judges to rule that UK law is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights because it wrongly restricts compensation in "miscarriage of justice" cases. | |
Their judicial review challenges were the first to be brought against the coalition government's decision last year to narrow eligibility for an award. | |
Victor Nealon served 17 years of a life sentence for the attempted rape of a woman in Redditch in 1996. His conviction was quashed in 2013 as a result of new DNA evidence. | |
Sam Hallam was jailed in 2005 for life with a minimum term of 12 years in connection with the murder of Essayas Kassahun in 2004. The Court of Appeal ruled in 2012 that his conviction was "unsafe". | |
Lord Justice Burnett and Mrs Justice Thirlwall dismissed their compensation cases. |