Sean Hodgson was in jail for 27 years for murder he did not commit (From The Northern Echo)

Sean Hodgson was in jail for 27 years for murder he did not commit

8:25am Saturday 20th March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(3)

A MAN who spent almost three decades locked up for a murder he did not commit has finally launched a bid for compensation.

A year ago this week, Sean Hodgson tasted freedom for the first time in 27 years, after he was cleared of raping and killing Teresa De Simone in Southampton in 1979.

Despite being the victim of one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history, he has so far only received a £250,000 interim compensation payment from the Home Office – and that was only paid after two MPs intervened to cut through administrative red tape.

Julian Young, the solicitor who helped win him his freedom after DNA proved he had not killed the 22-year-old gas board clerk, has now written to the Forensic Sciences Service (FSS) and Hampshire Police urging them to make his client an offer.

Mr Hodgson, who lives near Crook, County Durham, is in line for up to £1m compensation from the Home Office, but Mr Young believes there are solid cases for further claims.

The FSS and Hampshire Police were criticised for their handling of his case, with errors blamed for Mr Hodgson not being cleared several years sooner.

In 1998, the FSS wrongly told Mr Hodgson’s then legal team no DNA evidence from the murder scene had survived, dashing any hopes of an appeal. Hampshire Police failed to notify Mr Hodgson’s solicitors when the real killer, David Lace, confessed to the crime in 1983, or when he killed himself five years later.

Mr Young said yesterday: “The letters are essentially asking them if they would like to consider their position before we commence legal proceedings.

“Hopefully the authorities will see sense and make sure that this poor man, who has already suffered at the hands of the state, does not have to worry about further legal fees or the stress of going through the court system again.

“I have not done anything until now because he has not been very well and we have not been able to get the right psychiatric reports done.”

Mr Hodgson spoke to The Northern Echo this week about the lack of support from authorities for prisoners who, like him, were released as innocent men.