THE Limerick-based uncle of the man wrongly imprisonment for the murder of BBC presenter Jill Dando has expressed grave disappointment over the British High Court’s judgement that although acquitted of the charge, Barry George was “not innocent enough to be compensated”.
Ballyneety man Michael Bourke, who regularly visited his nephew during his imprisonment at Whitemoor prison in Cambridge, consistently protested Barry George’s innocence and campaigned for his release after his initial conviction in 2001.
Mr Bourke, a 57-year-old bus driver, is brother of Barry George’s mother, Margaret George-Bourke who died in September 2011.
The late Ms George-Bourke moved to East Acton in London in the 1950s and returned to retire in her native Ballineety from where she visited her son after his release in 2008.
Barry George (52), who now lives in Ovens, Co.Cork, spent eight years in prison for murdering the 37-year-old television presenter outside her home in Fulham in April, 1999. After his conviction in July 2001 and a prolonged campaign for his release, he was eventually acquitted after a retrial in August 2008.
He applied to the High court for a reconsideration of his case, which could have opened the way for him to claim an award of up to £500,000 for lost earnings and wrongful imprisonment.
However the judges yesterday ruled that he had “failed the legal test” to receive an award. Two judges rejected his claim that Britain’s justice secretary unlawfully decided he was not entitled to financial compensation as a victim of a “miscarriage of justice”.
Lord Justice Beatson and Mr Justice Irwin ruled that the secretary of state was “entirely justified in the conclusion he reached”.
His solicitor, Nick Baird, said: “We are very disappointed with the judgment and will be applying for permission to leapfrog the Court of Appeal to have the matter heard before the Supreme Court.”
Despite his unanimous acquittal by a jury at his retrial, a justice ministry “functionary” had unfairly and unlawfully decided he was “not innocent enough to be compensated”.
Barry George’s initial claim for compensation for lost earnings and wrongful imprisonment was rejected in January, 2010.
Above: Barry George with his mother on a visit to the Isle of Wight after his release in 2008.
